Current Affairs Update – 6-7 November, 2016

• India and the UK on Monday signed
  two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on increasing cooperation in
  intellectual property rights (IPRs) and ease of doing business.
• Both the MoUs were exchanged in
  the presence of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and her British counterpart
  Theresa May here.
• The MoU on IPR was inked between
  the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the Intellectual
  Property Office of the United Kingdom (UKIPO).
• It is intended to promote
  innovation, creativity and economic growth in both countries, an official
  statement said.
• It establishes a broad and
  flexible framework through which both countries can exchange best practices and
  work together on training programmes and technical exchanges to raise awareness
  on IPRs and better protect intellectual property rights.
• The priority initiatives under
  the MoU include exchange of best practices, experiences and knowledge on IP
  awareness among the public, businesses and educational institutions of both
  countries, collaboration in training programmes, exchange of experts, technical
  exchanges, and outreach activities.
• The MoU on ease of doing business
  will harness UK expertise to support India’s efforts to climb the World Bank Ease
  of Doing Business ratings.
• In the World Bank’s latest ‘Doing
  Business’ report, India’s place remained unchanged from last year’s original
  ranking of 130 among the 190 economies that were assessed on various parameters.
  But the last year’s ranking has been revised to 131 from which the country has improved
  its place by one spot.

• Chhattisgarh government has
  launched a campaign to complete the irrigation projects that could not be
  completed.
• Under the campaign called
  “Lakshya Bhagirathi”, the water resources department had identified 108
  projects that could not be completed. Most of the projects are minor and
  middle. For the last three decades, the projects were pending for required
  clearances.
• The economy of the state is
  mainly based on agriculture and forestry. The agriculture sector contributes
  around 38% to the State’s Net Domestic Product. Of the total workforce of 8.3
  million, 5.9 million (71%) are engaged in agriculture.
• Net sown area of the Chhattisgarh
  state is 4.683 million hectares while the gross sown area is 5.561 million
  hectares. The state’s Irrigation potential was 1.328 million hectares at the
  time of formation of the state (in November 2000) which was 23% of the gross
  sown area.

• Hyderabad-based IT and
  engineering services company Cyient India Limited on Monday announced that it
  would acquire UK-based ground surveying and digital mapping solutions provider
  Blom Aerofilms Limited. It has signed a definitive agreement with Blom AS, Norway
  for the acquisition of its UK-based subsidiary.
• Blom employs a core group of 40
  people and had the calender year 2015 revenue of 6 million pounds. The
  transaction is EPS accretive and expected to complete over next 30 days.
  According to Cyient President John Renard, this acquisition will complete the
  company’s existing skills and capabilities in software and data processing
  around geospatial technology.

• The Odisha government on Saturday
  signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Software Technology Parks of
  India (STPI) to set up four STPI centres in the state. The STPI centres would
  come up in Angul, Jajpur, Koraput (Jeypore) and Sambalpur. With these four,
  Odisha will have eight centres of the total 55 in the country.
• He said the Incubation High Speed
  Data connectivity facility would be available to entrepreneurs, specially
  catering to the need of Startups, MSMEs, SMEs to start their business without any
  hassles. “It is a matter of pride that the IT exports from the state is
  reported at Rs 2900 crore during the year 2015-16 and achieved national
  prominence in the IT map of the country. Today around 90% of software exports
  from the state are contributed by STPI,” Patnaik said.
• He added that he is confident
  that the new STPI centres would facilitate and support the entrepreneurs to
  explore global opportunities and boost direct and indirect employment in the
  state.

• Future Retail has signed a
  definitive agreement to acquire the retail, agriculture, and bakery businesses
  of Heritage Foods in an all-stock deal on Monday.
• Heritage Foods, owned by Andhra
  Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, will get 3.65% stake in Future
  Retail worth of Rs 295 crore.
• With this deal, Heritage will
  leverage the strength of Future Retail to expand the market for its dairy
  products across India, Heritage Foods director Nara Lokesh said.
• The retail business of Heritage
  Foods includes the chain of 124 Heritage Fresh stores in Hyderabad, Bengaluru,
  and Chennai with 2,000-8,000 square ft store sizes. These small format stores
  will compliment well with Future Retail’s existing network of 379 small EasyDay
  stores in north India.

• Online learning platform
  HarukaEdu from Indonesia just announced it has raised funding to the tune of
  US$2.2 million from Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF), Samator Education,
  and previous investor CyberAgent Ventures.
• HarukaEdu is an edtech platform
  for online classes. It hosts both informal courses as well as certified
  university programs that lead up to a degree.
• It is working together with a
  number of Indonesian institutions such as the London School of Public
  Relations, Wiraswasta Indonesia University, and President University. The
  startup was one of 8 firms from Indonesia selected to join the Google Launchpad
  accelerator program earlier this year.

• Construction company Hindustan
  Construction Company (HCC) on 5 November 2016 became India’s first firm to get
  Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) approval for debt recast under Scheme for
  Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A).
• The RBI-mandated Overseeing
  Committee (OC) under the S4A approved HCC’s 5107 crore rupees debt recast that
  was passed by ICICI Bank-led joint lender forum in September 2016.

• Under this debt recast of HCC, 52
  percent of the debt was found to be sustainable and can be serviced as per
  original terms and conditions including interest rate and tenure.
• Out of the remaining 48 percent
  debt,  1000 crore rupees debt will be
  converted into equity for banks, which could eventually give them 25 percent
  stake in the company’s post-scheme equity capital.
• The balance of 1400 crore rupees
  will be converted into Optionally Convertible Debentures for 10 years with a
  coupon rate of 0.01 percent.
• The share price will be
  determined as per SEBI guidelines and debt will go down to the extent of the
  conversion amount.
• These measures will now go for
  approval from HCC’s shareholders.

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• Grant Thornton released its
  International Business Report 2016. The report ranks India at the second
  position on the global business optimism index during the third quarter
  (July-September 2016).
• During the April-June 2016
  period, India was ranked at the third position after being on top for two
  consecutive quarters.
• Indonesia took the top spot, with
  the Philippines coming in third.

• The report says, the improvement
  in the optimism ranking in the recent past clearly reflects that the reform
  agenda of the government and its efforts on improving the climate for doing
  business are having an impact.
• It says that the ranking rides on
  the recent policy reforms and Goods and Services tax (GST), which is expected
  to become reality soon.
• The ranking was also complimented
  by the rise of employment expectations.
• India came into light in the
  global economy due to the programmes and initiatives along with its focus on
  building relationships with all major economic powers.
• About 59 per cent of the
  respondents have voted in favour  ofthe
  growth prospects.
• In terms of revenue expectations,
  India slipped to third position from top in the previous quarter.

• Indian Army in the first week of
  November 2016 launched ‘Operation School Chalo’ in South Kashmir. The operation
  is aimed at providing students with free coaching after their regular education
  system was interrupted by spiraling violence, protests by militants and their
  supporters triggered by the encounter killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander
  Burhan Wani.
• The operation closely follows its
  predecessor, ‘Operation calm down’, which was aimed at clearing off the anti-social
  elements from the valley.

• The Ministry of Environment,
  Forest and Climate Change on 4 November 2016 constituted a four-member team for
  conservation and management of Loktak Lake in Manipur. 
• The team will visit Loktak Lake
  from 7 November to 9 November 2016 and hold discussions with the State
  Government, its concerned agencies and other stakeholders.  The consultations will also include people
  living in the vicinity of the lake. 
• The Ministry has asked the team
  to submit a report by 15 November 2016.

• Scientists from Indian Institute
  of Technology (Kharagpur) claimed to have found evidence confirming the
  existence of a mythical Indian river, Chandrabhaga.  The discovery came in the first week of
  November 2016.
• This is the second among such
  findings. In October 2016, KS Valdiya led expert committee had found that
  Saraswati River did exist.

• The Reserve Bank (RBI) has
  appointed M Rajeshwar Rao as Executive Director following G Mahalingam’s
  voluntary retirement from the central bank.
• As Executive Director, Rao will
  look after Department of Statistics and Information Management, Financial
  markets Operations Department and International Department, RBI said in a
  statement.
• Prior to taking over as the
  Executive Director, he was the Chief General Manager, Financial Markets
  Operations Department.
• Rao has a Bachelor of Arts in
  Economics and a Master of Business Administration from University of Cochin. He
  is also a Certificated Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers. Rao joined RBI
  in 1984 and as career central banker has exposure in various aspects of central
  bank functioning.
• He has previously held charge of
  the Risk Monitoring Department. He has also worked as the Banking Ombudsman,
  New Delhi and in the Reserve Bank’s regional offices at Ahmedabad, Hyderabad,
  Chennai and New Delhi.

• Bank of Baroda has appointed
  Ratnesh Kumar as Managing Director and CEO of its wholly-owned investment
  banking subsidiary, BoB Capital Markets Ltd.
• Kumar holds a Masters degree in
  Management from FMS, University of Delhi, and M.Sc. (Hons) in Physics &
  B.E. (Hons) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BITS, Pilani.
• The public sector bank in a
  statement said Kumar started his career in the Indian capital markets and
  financial services sector in 1993.

• Guy Ryder has been re-elected
  Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for another
  five-year term, starting October 1.
• In the governing body, Ryder
  received 54 of the 56 votes cast by the titular members, an ILO release from
  Geneva said. Incidentally, he was the only candidate.
• Ryder is the 10th ILO
  Director-General and has about 35 years of experience in the world of work,
  most of it at the international level.

• Indian lawyer Aniruddha Rajput
  was on 4 November 2016 elected as a Member of International Law Commission
  (ILC), a top body of legal experts of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
• He is India’s first time
  candidate to the Commission and youngest among the group. He is also the first
  Indian nominee chosen from outside the close circuit of lawyers of the Union
  Ministry of External Affairs.
• Rajput is among other 34
  individuals elected as members of the ILC. The members were elected from five
  geographical groupings of Asia-Pacific, African, Latin American and Caribbean,
  Eastern European and Western European states. They will have five-year term
  commencing from January 2017.
• Rajput was elected from the Asia
  Pacific Group by gaining 160 votes.

• Parminder Singh on 3 November
  2016 resigned as the Managing Director (MD) of Southeast Asia, India, Middle
  East and North Africa (MENA) region of Twitter.
• Singh’s resignation came barely
  two days after the resignation of Twitter’s India head Rishi Jaitly.

• The International Day for Preventing
  the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict was observed
  globally on 6 November 2016.
• On 5 November 2001, the UN
  General Assembly declared 6 November of each year as the International Day for
  Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict
  through  resolution A/RES/56/4.
• On 27 May 2016, the United
  Nations Environment Assembly adopted resolution UNEP/EA.2/Res.15 to recognize
  the role of healthy ecosystems and sustainably managed resources in reducing
  the risk of armed conflict.
• It also committed itself towards
  the full implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals listed in General
  Assembly resolution 70/1 entitled Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for
  Sustainable Development.