Current Affairs Update – 6 Jan, 2015

Finance/Business/Economy News
1. Union Cabinet
approved 2G telecom spectrum auction targeted to fetch 64840 crore rupees

  • The Union Cabinet on 5 January 2015 approved the largest
    ever auction of Second Generation (2G) telecom spectrum that is targeted to
    fetch around 64840 crore rupees from the sale.
  • The last date for submission of application for the
    auction is 2 February 2015 and bidders will be pre-qualified by 13 February
    2015. The auction will start on 23 February 2015.
  • Any company holding a universal service licence to
    provide telephony services or eligible to obtain the services can bid in the
    auction.
  • The government had generated about 62162 crore rupees
    from the last auction of the 2G spectrum in February 2014.

Three Bands of 2G
spectrum Auction

  • The government will sell 380.75 megahertz of 2G spectrum
    in three bands- 800 MHz, 900 MHz and 1800 MHz.
  • In 800 MHz band, 103.75 MHz in all service areas will be
    put on auction while 177.8 MHz in 900 MHz band will be sold in 17 telecom
    circles or service areas. 99.2 MHz will be auctioned in 15 circles in 1800 MHz
    band.
  • There are total 22 telecom service areas in the country
    and the price of spectrum in each circle is different.
  • The 900 Mhz and 1800 Mhz band are used for providing GSM
    based mobile services by companies like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Uninor. The 800
    Mhz band is used for CDMA based mobile services by companies like MTS, Tata
    Teleservices and Reliance Communications.

Reserve price

  • The Cabinet approved a reserve price of 3646 crore rupees
    pan-India per MHz in 800 MHz band, 3980 crore rupees for 900 MHz band pan-India
    excluding Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Jammu & Kashmir and 2191 crore rupees
    pan-India (excluding Maharashtra and West Bengal) in 1800 MHz band.
  • The reserve or auction start price is the same as
    recommended by the Telecom Commission, except in the case of 900 MHz. The
    Telecom Commission had proposed a reserve price of 3695 crore rupees for each
    MHz in 900 Mhz.

2. Google’s Larry Page
named as business person of the year for 2014

  • Google’s Larry Page has emerged as the ‘business person
    of the year’ for 2014, edging past the likes of Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and
    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, according to Fortune magazine.
  • Page, who is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder
    of Google, came on top in the 20 global corporate leaders’ list compiled on the
    basis of various factors including company’s performance, leadership style and
    total shareholder returns, the magazine said while bringing out its list.
  • Apart from Jack Ma and Zuckerberg, others in the race
    included Apple’s Tim Cook and fast food chain Chipotle co-CEOs — Montgomery
    Moran and Steve Ells — and Fedex chairman & CEO Fred Smith.
  • Besides, five women have made the cut to the top 20 list.
  • Interestingly, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who led Fortune list
    in 2012, failed to make in to the top 20 list.
  • As Google’s core business continues to thrive, Page, who
    topped the list, is making “huge bets on new technology — ingestible
    nanoparticles, balloons that beam down broadband — that could define the
    future,” the magazine noted.
  • Page and his company have packed a lot of evolution into
    just over 15 years of existence, it added.

3. RBI allowed FIIs to
buy up to 49% paid-up capital in Bajaj Corp
  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 5 January 2015 allowed
    the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)/Registered Foreign Portfolios
    Investors (RFPIs) to buy up to 49 percent of the paid-up capital of Bajaj Corp
    Ltd. The investments will be made under the Portfolio Investment Scheme
    (PIS). 
  • Till September 2014 (BSE data), FIIs held 15.21 percent
    in the company.
  • Foreign shareholding hike decision was taken after
    passage of a resolution by the Board of Directors and special resolution by
    shareholders, in which they agreed to enhance the limit for purchase of its
    equity shares and convertible debentures by FIIs/RFPIs.

News Related to India and Indian Polity
4. P Krishnamurthy
appointed as Private Secretary of Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar

  • IAS officer P Krishnamurthy was on 5 January 2015
    appointed as Private Secretary of Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. He
    is appointed for a five-year period or on co-terminus basis with the minister’s
    tenure.
  • Krishnamurthy is presently working as Resident
    Commissioner at Goa Sadan and State’s finance secretary.
  • Krishnamurthy is a 1997 batch IAS officer of Arunachal
    Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram Union territories (AGMU) cadre.
  • He has also worked as secretary to Parrikar when the
    latter was Goa chief minister.
  • He served as Deputy Commissioner of North Division of
    Revenue Department, Delhi from 2008 to 2009.
  • He was the Director of the Education Department of
    National Capital Territory of Delhi from 2009 to 2011.
  • He served as the Director of National Institute of
    Fashion Technology (NIFT) from 2011 to 2014.

5. Union Petroleum
ministry launched LPG schemes for benefitting BPL families
  • The Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on 5
    January 2015 launched the sale of subsidised 5 kg cooking gas cylinders under
    Free Trade LPG (FTL) Scheme to benefit Below Poverty Line (BPL) families,
    students and migrant labourers.
  • Under the facility, BPL families will get 500 rupees
    subsidy while purchasing 5kg cylinder. Those who do not have address proof due
    to acquiring residence on temporary basis can buy 5 Kg LPG cylinder at market
    price.
  • The 5 Kg LPG cylinders will be available at 9 retail
    outlets in Bhubaneswar and at 4 retail outlets in Cuttack. Subsequently, the
    sale of cylinder under FTL scheme is proposed at various locations of Udyan
    Fresh outlets in Bhubaneswar.
  • The scheme is aimed at increasing the usage of LPG, a
    cleaner cooking fuel, by households.

Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) Scheme

  • The Union Petroleum Ministry also launched the expanded
    Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Scheme to cover BPL families living in
    urban areas. Under the scheme, all BPL families will be getting LPG connection
    without paying the security deposit for cylinder and pressure regulator.
  • The scheme provides concession of 1600 rupees to BPL
    families. The move is aimed to make cooking gas easily available to consumers.
  • The scheme is available upto 31 March 2015.

6. Union Cabinet
approved to set up India-based Neutrino Observatory in TN

  • Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 5
    January 2015 approved to set up the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) in
    Tamil Nadu.
  • The INO laboratory will host experiments such as the
    neutrino-less double beta decay and the search for dark matter.
  • The INO project will be set up near Pottipuram village in
    the Bodi West Hills of Theni district in Tamil Nadu. The project is at an
    estimated cost of 1500 crore rupees.
  • INO is an underground laboratory with a rock cover of
    approximate 1200 metre for non-accelerator based high energy and nuclear
    physics research in India. The project also includes Inter-Institutional Centre
    for High Energy Physics (IICHEP) and Iron Calorimeter Detector (ICAL).
  • The project will be jointly supported by the Department of
    Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology. The infrastructural
    support will be given by the State Government of Tamil Nadu since the project
    is located in Tamil Nadu.
  • IICHEP will be established in Madurai that is about 110
    km from the proposed site of the neutrino observatory. The construction of
    50000 tonne magnetised ICAL is to study the properties of the neutrino
    especially the mass hierarchy among different types of neutrino.

The goals of INO are:

  • To Study neutrinos which are fundamental particles
    belonging to the lepton family. Neutrinos come in three flavours, one
    associated with electrons and the others with their heavier cousins the muon
    and the Tau.
  • Development of detector technology and its varied
    applications.

The INO Project Director is Naba Mondal who is a Senior
Professor at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai and was earlier
associated with the pioneering experiments at the underground laboratory at
Kolar Gold Fields.
7. Union Cabinet
approved promulgation of ordinance for amending MMDR Act, 1957
  • Union Cabinet on 5 January 2015 approved promulgation of
    ordinance to amend the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation (MMDR)
    Act, 1957. The ordinance will amend the mining laws to auction the Iron ore and
    other minerals and pave the way for more transparent allocation of minerals.


Main Highlights of the
Ordinance

  • The ordinance will pave the way for introduction of
    competitive bidding for allocation of minerals (iron ore and other non-coal
    mines).
  • The auctioning of minerals will induce transparency and
    royalty-sharing will compensate project-affected locals.
  • The amendment will also enable creating District Mineral
    Funds for the welfare of the project-affected people
  • The amendment will impose additional tax on miners in the
    form of benefit-sharing as percentage of royalty that is credited to District
    Mineral Funds.
  • The amendments will allow transfer of mining leases, the
    allocation of leases covering far larger areas that is up to 100 sq km than the
    existing average of 10 sq km and longer periods of up to 50 years.
  • The amendment will allow the entry of large foreign
    miners and ramp up raw material supply for steel and aluminium companies.

International News

8. Forbes released its
fourth annual The 30 Under 30 List
  • Forbes Magazine on 5 January 2015 released its fourth
    annual The 30 Under 30 List in New York, US. The list features 600 young
    disruptors, innovators and entrepreneurs from 20 industries who are
    transforming the world.
  • The list has been prepared by a panel of expert judges in
    their respective fields. Some of the judges include Steve Ballmer in Sports,
    Daniel Ek in Technology, Sara Blakely and Tommy Hilfiger in Retail &
    E-commerce.
  • As per the 30 Under 30 list of 2015, around 16 percent of
    the 600 young disruptors are either dropped out or never attended college, 19
    percent are immigrants and 83 percent have a middle-class or low-income
    background.
  • Further, the average age of young innovators on the 30
    Under 30 List who knew exactly what they wanted to be is 14 years.

Some of the names on
the 30 Under 30 List

  • Palmer Luckey:
    22-year-old, founder of Oculus VR, who at 21, sold his company to Facebook for
    2 billion US dollars, netting himself over 500 million US dollars in the
    process.
  • Emma Watson: Harry
    Potter actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador

Deepika Kapur

Some Indians on the 30
Under 30 List

44 Indians and people of Indian-origin, including
technology wizards, inventors and policymakers, have been named in the list.
Some of them include:
  • Ishveen Anand: 29-year-old
    founder of OpenSponsorship, which is the first online platform to facilitate
    sponsorship agreements by connecting brands with pro-sports rights holders like
    leagues and teams. The group currently includes Indian cricket captain M S
    Dhoni and F1 team Force India.
  • Vijay Chudasama: 28-year
    old who is working in one of the hottest areas for new biotechnology drugs of
    combining antibodies with other medicines.
  • Vinith Misra: 27-year
    old who is working on the Chef Watson machine, which applies artificial
    intelligence to create new recipes.
  • Vivek Ravisankar: 27-year
    old co-founder of HackerRank, a service company that can use coding challenges
    to find new engineering talent.
  • Deepika Kurup: 16-year
    old who invented an inexpensive method of purifying water that utilises
    sunlight and a photo-catalytic composite of titanium dioxide and silver nitrate.

Sports News

9. BCCI announced
15-man Indian cricket team for World Cup 2015

  • Board of Control for Cricket in India on 6 January 2015
    announced the 15-man squad for the Cricket World Cup 2015. The Indian team was
    announced during the meeting of the selection committee of BCCI.


The 15-member Indian
cricket team led by Captain-cum-Wicket Keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni comprises
of:
Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat
Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar
Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Stuart Binny, Umesh
Yadav.
  • However, the Man of the Series of the Cricket World Cup
    2011, Yuvraj Singh was not able to make the cut due to his below the mark
    performance since last world cup in 2011.
  • Cricket World Cup 2015 is scheduled to be held from 13
    February to 14 March 2015 in New Zealand and Australia. The first match of the
    one-month extravaganza will be played between New Zealand and Sri Lanka.