Current Affairs Update – 7th, 8th and 9th November, 2015

• Government has signed a USD 273 million loan agreement with
  the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to improve rural roads in Assam, Chhattisgarh,
  Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.
• The loan constitutes the third tranche, which is also the
  last tranche of the USD 800 million financing facility under the Rural
  Connectivity Investment Programme, a Finance Ministry statement said.
• “The loan will help in constructing over 6,000
  kilometers of all-weather rural roads in the aforesaid five states, benefiting
  over 4,200 rural habitations,” it added.
• Joint Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs S
  Selvakumar signed the loan agreement on behalf of government while Teresa Kho,
  Country Director signed for ADB.
• Selvakumar said that the programme has supported the
  government’s objectives under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) by
  providing road connectivity in selected rural areas in the five states and
  improve access of rural communities to markets, health and education
  facilities.

• Union Government on 7 November 2015 issued the notification
  regarding implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP) in respect of Defence
  Forces personnel.
• The notification is in tune with the modalities for
  implementation announced on 5 September 2015.

• Pension will be re-fixed for all pensioners retiring in the
  same rank and with the same length of service as the average of minimum and
  maximum pension in 2013.
• The benefit will be given with effect from 1 July 2014 to
  the ex-service men of all the three forces.
• Those drawing pensions above the average will be protected.
• In future, the pension would be re-fixed every 5 years.
• Arrears will be paid in four half-yearly instalments.
• All widows, including war widows, will be paid arrears in
  one instalment.
• Personnel who voluntarily retire will not be covered under
  the scheme.
• The estimated cost to the exchequer would be 8000 to 10000
  crore at present, and will increase further in future.

• Union Ministry of Finance on 6 November 2015 decided to
  impose 0.5 percent Swachh Bharat Cess (SBC) on all taxable services. It will be
  levied in addition to the 14 percent service tax that is in force now.
• The SBC will come into force on 15 November 2015. Its
  proceeds will be exclusively used to support Swachh Bharat initiative.
• The decision to impose SBC is in tune with the announcement
  made by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget 2015-16 budget
  speech advocating for 2 percent additional cess to fund Swachh Bharat.
• As per an estimate, the SBC is expected to fetch additional
  4000 crore rupees per annum in tax revenues to the government.

• Boeing and Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) have joined hands to
  manufacture aerostructures for aircraft and collaborate on integrated systems
  development opportunities in India.
• Initially, the Joint Venture would create a manufacturing
  centre of excellence to produce aerostructures for the AH-64 Apache Helicopter.
  It would compete for additional manufacturing work packages across Boeing
  platforms, both commercial and defence, a release from Dubai said on Monday.
• Boeing International President Marc Allen, Boeing India
  President Pratyush Kumar and Tata Advanced Systems CEO Sukaran Singh attended
  the ceremony.
• A wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, the TASL offers
  integrated solutions for aerospace, defence and homeland security. It is a
  manufacturing partner for global OEMs, including Boeing, Airbus Group, Sikorsky
  Aircraft Corporation, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, Cobham
  Mission Equipment, RUAG Aviation, the release said.

• The Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani
  on 7 November 2015 launched the e-Pathshala, Saaransh and National Programme on
  School Standards and Evaluation Framework (Shala Siddhi) web portals/ mobile
  apps.
• These portals were launched during the edNEXT, the National
  Conference on ICT in School Education that was held at New Delhi. During the
  Conference, Shala Darpan, MDM-IVRS and Ekta project from Alwar, Rajasthan were
  also show-cased.

• E-Pathshala is a web portal which hosts educational
  resources for Students, Teachers, Parents, researchers and educators.
• It contains textbooks and other e-books as E-Pub 3.0 and
  Flipbooks in English, Hindi and Urdu.
• It is available through especially developed mobile app
  interface on Android, IOS and windows platforms for wider access.

• Shaala Siddhi web portal is a comprehensive instrument for
  school evaluation which enables the schools to evaluate their performance in
  more focused and strategic manner.
• The web-portal will help all schools to assess themselves
  and the results can be seen by all enabling them to provide feedback.
• The initiative has already been successfully piloted in four
  districts of Tamil Nadu.

• Saransh is a tool which allows the schools to identify areas
  of improvement in students, teachers and curriculum to facilitate and implement
  change.
• The platform is presently available for classes 9th to 12th
  and provides a comprehensive overview of standard 10th performance since 2007
  and standard 12th performance since 2009 till the current academic session.
• Presently, results of CBSE are available on this portal/app.

• Election Commission of India on 8 November 2015 announced
  the results of the 2015 Assembly elections of Bihar. The elections were held in
  5 phases between 12 October and 5 November 2015 for 243 assembly seats.
• Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan) of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD),
  JANATA DAL (UNITED) (JD(U)) and Indian National Congress (INC) emerged as the
  winner of the election with thumping two-third majority. RJD, a part of the
  grand Alliance with 80 seats emerged as the largest party.

• Indian Army’s Strategic Forces Command (SFC) on 9 November
  2015 successfully test-fired surface-to-surface Agni-IV missile.
• The 4000-km range nuclear capable missile was test-fired
  from the Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast.
• SFC is entrusted with the task of handling strategic weapons
  of the country.

• It is 20 meters in length weighs 17 tonnes and carries a pay
  load of one tone
• With light weight, the missile has two stages of solid
  propulsion and a payload with re-entry heat shield
• It was developed by Defence Research and Development
  Organisation (DRDO)
• It is the fourth missile in the series of Agni missiles. It
  was earlier known as Agni-II prime

• Indian Army on 7 November 2015 successfully test-fired the
  BrahMos supersonic cruise missile at the Pokhran Test Range in Rajasthan. It
  was launched from an Autonomous Mobile Launcher (AML).
• For BrahMos, it was the 50th test-flight. The previous
  test-firing was from INS Kochi off the west coast on 1 November 2015.

• It is the first supersonic cruise missile known to be in
  service and is capable of carrying a conventional and nuclear warhead of 300
  kilogram.
• It is a two-stage missile having Solid propellant in the
  first stage and Ramjet liquid propellant in the second stage.
• It can be launched from land, Sea, Sub-seas and air.
• It operates on Fire and Forget Principle by adopting
  varieties of flights on its way to the target.

• The Committee of Eminent Persons (CEP) on 5 November 2015 submitted
  its report. It was constituted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
  Council under the Chairmanship of Prof Ashok Misra to suggest reforms to the
  Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

• Following changes in the structure of JEE shall be effected
  from 2017 onwards
• A National Testing Service shall be set up by early 2016,
  mandated to conduct an Aptitude Test, which should test the scientific aptitude
  and innovative thinking ability
• The Aptitude test may be offered 2 or more times in a year
  and would be an online test. The testing shall test the scientific thinking and
  cannot be gamed through coaching

• Nigeria on 8 November 2015 won the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
  It was held across 8 cities in Chile since 17 October 2015.
• To win its third championship Nigeria defeated Mali 2-0.
  Oshimhen and Bamgboye scored the goals for Nigeria at the 56th and 59th minute
  respectively.
• India will host the bi-annual championship in 2017.

• India’s Heena Sindhu on 6 November 2015 won the gold medal
  in the 10m air pistol women’s event at the 13th Asian Shooting Championship.
• The championship was started on 1 November 2015 and will be
  held for 12 days in Kuwait City.
• Incidentally, Heena was also the winner of the gold medal in
  the 10m air pistol event in 8th Asian Air Gun Championship. It was held in New
  Delhi in September 2015.

• Nivetha won gold in the 10m air pistol junior women’s event
• In the 25m pistol men’s junior event, Shivam Shukla won
  gold.
• Angad Bajwa secured the individual gold in the junior skeet
  men’s competition

• Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on 6 November 2015 became
  the fastest Indian to reach 150 wickets mark in the Indian test cricket
  history.
• He achieved this feat when he took Imran Tahir’s wicket in
  the first innings of the first test against South Africa in Mohali, Punjab.
• In this match, Ashwin also became the first bowler in over
  100 years to take 50 wickets after opening the bowling. He achieved this feat
  in 12 matches off 1888 balls.
• The previous record was held by Colin Blythe of England who
  took 74 wickets between 1902 and 1910 in 13 tests.
• The test is a part of four-match test series played to win
  Freedom Trophy, which is in turn is a part of the larger Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson
  Mandela Series that includes ODIs and T20s as well.

• N Srinivasan was today dethroned as the ICC Chairman after
  the BCCI decided to recall him and nominate its recently-elected President
  Shashank Manohar as the chief of the world body.
• The decision to remove Srinivasan was taken at the BCCI’s
  86th Annual General Meeting here today, virtually signalling the end of his
  hold on Indian cricket.
• The tenure of Srinivasan, who took over in June last year,
  was to end next year in the same month and the remainder of the term would be
  completed by Manohar as it is India’s turn to hold the top position.
• It is learnt that the resolution favouring replacing
  Srinivasan with Manohar was passed at the AGM. In case, Manohar cannot attend
  the ICC meetings, Sharad Pawar will be India’s representative.
• The Tamil Nadu strongman will thus lose his grip on Indian
  cricket for good after having already been ousted as the BCCI President owing
  to the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal in which his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan
  was held guilty of betting charges.

• Book titled What Happened to Netaji? authored by former
  journalist Anuj Dhar was released October 2015. The book talks about Netaji
  Subhash Chandra Bose in form of an unseen holy man of Faizabad in disguise who
  lived in several parts of Uttar Pradesh from 1050s to 1980s.
• The book provides three prominent theories of Bose’s death
  zeroing in on what has come to be known as the Faizabad angle of the Bose
  mystery.
• The book talks about the controversy surrounding the fate of
  Subhas Chandra Bose and lights the factual position with regard to the air
  crash that reportedly killed Netaji in 1945.

• Santoor maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma on 7 November 2015
  was honoured with the Aditya Vikram Birla Kala Shikhar Award for lifetime
  achievement.
• The governor of Maharashtra C Vidyasagar Rao presented the
  award to the 77-year old Santoor player in Mumbai.
• On the other hand, Murad Ali Khan (Sarangi) and Satyajit
  Talwalkar (Tabla) were awarded with the Kala Kiran Awards. Special Jury Award
  was given to Shehnai players Sanjeev and Ashwani Shankar.

• Former Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Om Prakash Mehra, 96,
  passed away in Delhi.
• Mehra, who also served as the Governor of Maharashtra and
  Rajasthan, died on Sunday at the Army Research and Referral Hospital.
• His cremation was held on Monday at Brar Square in the Delhi
  cantonment.
• He is survived by three sons and one daughter.
• Mehra was also honoured with a Padma Vibhushan in 1977 for
  his service to the IAF.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

Sponsored

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

Books For 2015 Banking/Insurance Exams