Current Affairs Update – 7th October, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 7th October, 2015. These are Important for the upcoming IBPS PO V Mains and IBPS Clerk Exam.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 6 October 2015 relaxed
  the norms of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) of government debt and also
  announced higher investment limits in rupee terms in government securities with
  a view to bring in an additional 1.2 lakh crore rupees by March 2018.
• The RBI fixed the FPI investment limits in rupee terms and
  raised the limits in phases to reach 5 percent of the outstanding stock by
  March 2018.

• For the fiscal year 2015-16, RBI enhanced the limit for
  investment by FPIs in Government sectors in two tranches from 12 October 2015
  and 1 January 2016.
• The limit will be increased from 1.53 lakh crore rupees to
  1.7 lakh crore rupees from 12 October and it will be 1.86 lakh crore rupees
  from 1 January 2016.
• Those Central Government securities in which aggregate
  investment by FPIs exceeds the prescribed threshold of 20% will be put in a
  negative investment list.
• No fresh investments by FPIs in Central Government
  securities will be permitted till they are removed from the negative list.
• There will be no security-wise limit for SDLs for now. And
  the operational guidelines relating to allocation and monitoring of limits will
  be issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

• A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed the hope
  to roll out goods and services tax (GST) from 2016-17, the finance ministry on
  Wednesday released three reports on the processes for the new indirect tax
  regime. These suggested that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) can act as the
  aggregator of payments, and businesses will have to mandatorily register with
  the goods and services tax network (GSTN) portal to avail of benefits of the
  new tax system.
• The reports, prepared by joint sub-committees of the Union
  finance ministry and the empowered committee of state finance ministers, relate
  to registration, refunds and processes.
• The GSTN portal – IT backbone for the new indirect tax
  system – will be designed by IT major Infosys by March 31, 2015. The company
  will also maintain it for the next five years. It won the ~1,380-crore contract
  from GSTN in September.
• While the threshold limits are yet to be officially decided,
  the Centre is pressing for an exemption limit of Rs 25 lakh annual turnover.
• The Constitution amendment Bill has already been passed by
  the Lok Sabha, but is stuck in the Rajya Sabha as the ruling National
  Democratic Alliance lacks the required numbers in the upper House.
• The portal will have back-end integration with the
  respective IT systems of the Centre and states.

• Government of India and Federal Republic of Germany (KFW) on
  5 October 2015 signed two loan agreements worth 125 million Euros for financing
  two projects under the Green Energy Corridor programme. These two projects are
  in Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
• Germany will fund 57 million Euros for projects in Himachal
  Pradesh and 68 million Euros for Andhra Pradesh.
• Green Energy Corridor programme seeks to facilitate the flow
  of renewable energy into the national grid. In other words, it is aimed at
  synchronising electricity produced from renewable sources, such as solar and wind,
  with conventional power stations in the grid.
• This comprehensive transmission plan was prepared by
  POWERGRID Corporation of India Limited in 2012 and it entails a total cost of
  43000 crore rupees.
• In April 2013 during the second Indo-German Government
  Consultations in Berlin, Germany committed developmental and technical
  assistance of 1 billion euro for the project.

• The World Bank-assisted ‘National Watershed Management
  Project’ or ‘Neeranchal’ received the approval for implementation by the Union
  Cabinet on Wednesday.
• The project aims to fulfil the watershed component of the
  Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMSKY) to reduce surface runoff of
  rainwater, increase groundwater levels and better water availability in
  rain-fed areas.
• The cost of the project is estimated at Rs. 2,142.30 crore
  of which the Centre will be pitching in with Rs. 889 crore while Rs. 182 crore
  will be provided by the respective State Governments.
• The remaining 50 per cent of the project cost will be
  financed by a World Bank loan.
• It will be implemented across nine States – Andhra Pradesh,
  Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Chhattisgarh,
  Jharkhand and Rajasthan.

• The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Conference 2016 will be
  held in New Delhi from 8 January to 10 January 2016.
• The PBD Conference 2016 will be organised with an objective
  for developing a new paradigm for engagement with the Diaspora over the next
  decade.
• The 2016 PBD Conference will be an attempt to do an expert
  study on various issues concerning the Diaspora and areas of mutual benefit to
  India and to them, while the previous PBDs focused only on meetings with the
  Diaspora.
• The traditional PBD convention will be held every
  alternative year, with the partner State. 
  Such a convention would be held in 2017.

• Acceding to a long-pending demand of the armed forces, the
  government today approved a Rs 500- crore project for building a National War
  Memorial and a National War Museum near India Gate in memory of over 22,500
  soldiers who laid down their lives post-Independence.
• The total time for completion of the entire project at
  Princess Park here is estimated to be five years.
• Post-Independence, more than 22,500 soldiers have made the
  supreme sacrifice in national interests and in defence of the sovereignty and
  integrity of the country.
• However, even after 69 years of Independence, no memorial to
  commemorate the martyrs has been constructed till date.

• In its bid to empower rural women, Utkal Alumina
  International Limited (UAIL), a unit of Aditya Birla Group, has launched a
  unique project for the welfare of communities living in the vicinity of its
  project area in Odisha.
• Christened ‘Project Saksham’, the new initiative involves an
  advanced training-cum-garment manufacturing unit at Tikiri in Rayagada district
  to help unemployed rural women engage in a sustainable livelihood and become
  self-reliant, said Vijay Sapra.
• Aiming at speedy inclusive development, the project imparts
  training to 38 women from the underprivileged sections living in villages
  surrounding the plant.

• A three-member committee chaired by PDT Achary, former
  Secretary General of the Lok Sabha, on 6 October 2015 submitted its report on
  MLAs’ salary packages to Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel. The other two
  members were KV Prasad and Balraj Malik.
• In its 21-page unanimous report, the commission favoured 400
  percent hike in the basic salary of the MLAs of Delhi, that is, from 12000
  rupees to 50000 rupees per month, in addition to a slew of allowances for
  purposes ranging from travel to office furniture.
• Overall, the hike recommended has been 138 percent.

• Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar were on 7
  October 2015 jointly awarded with the 2015 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for
  having mapped how cells repair damaged DNA and safeguard the genetic
  information at a molecular level.
• All the three laureates will share the prize money of 8
  million Swedish kronor equally. Tomas Lindahl is from the Francis Crick
  Institute, UK; Paul Modrich is from Duke University School of Medicine, USA and
  Aziz Sancar belongs to University of North Carolina School of Medicine, USA.
• Their work provided fundamental knowledge of how a living
  cell functions and how it is used for the development of new cancer treatments.

• Saudi blogger and activist Raif Badawi and British poet and
  critic James Fenton were on 6 October 2015 awarded with the 2015 PEN Pinter
  Prize. Badawi was named as the 2015 International Writer of Courage by Fenton
  himself during a public event held at the British Library in London.
• Fenton officially accepted the 2015 PEN Pinter Prize at the
  event. He delivered a lecture written for the occasion, which was published in
  a limited edition by Faber & Faber. Fenton was selected for this
  prestigious award in June 2015 itself.
• While, due to Badawi’s imprisonment, his award was accepted
  by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and campaigner for Raif Badawi.

• Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman has been named the
  Cultural Ambassador for Seychelles. The music maestro has sent out his love and
  regard to the people and government of the foreign nation.
• The composer, who has taken Indian music on a world tour
  with his sounds, shared the news with his fans and followers on Twitter.
• A two-time Oscar winning composer, Rahman shared an image of
  the certificate, on the micro-blogging site.

• The Infosys veteran Ashok Vemuri on 6 October 2015 resigned
  from his position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of iGATE Corporation.
• Vemuri joined the US-based iGate as CEO in September 2013.
  When Capgemini announced the acquisition, he held 400000 shares of iGate. The
  shares were valued at over 19 million US dollar in April 2015.
• Vemuri was born on 22 April 1968. He obtained his bachelor’s
  degree in physics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and completed his master’s
  degree in business management from the Indian Institute of Management,
  Ahmedabad.

• World Wide Fund (WWF) on the day of World Habitat Day, that
  is, 5 October 2015 released Hidden Himalayas: Asia’s Wonderland report. The
  Eastern Himalayas spans Bhutan, the north-eastern Indian states of Arunachal
  Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim, North Bengal, the trans-boundary landscape of Terai
  Arc, far north of Myanmar, Nepal and southern Tibet.
• According to the report, 211 new species like sneezing
  monkey, walking fish and jewel-like snake, were discovered in the Eastern
  Himalayas region between 2009 and 2014. On an average 34 new species were
  discovered annually for the past six years.
• The 211 new species include 133 plants, 39 invertebrates, 26
  fish, 10 amphibians, one reptile, one bird and one mammal. These species were
  found by scientists from various organizations.

• International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 6 October 2015 released
  World Economic Outlook (WEO) October 2015 Update titled Adjusting to Lower
  Commodity Prices.
• The report projects global growth for 2015 at 3.1 percent,
  which is 0.3 percentage point lower than in 2014, and 0.2 percentage point
  below the forecasts in the July 2015 World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update.
• India’s growth is expected to strengthen from 7.3 percent
  2015 and last year to 7.5 percent in 2016. Also, Domestic demand in India is
  projected to remain strong.

• Russia’s Sergey Karjakin on 5 October 2015 emerged
  victorious in the 2015 FIDE World Chess Cup beating Peter Svidler by 6-4 in the
  final. It was held in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, from 10 September 2015 to 5
  October 2015.
• Karjakin and Svidler, both from Russia, won two classical
  games each. However, the title was decided in the tie-breakers.
• In the tie-breaker, Karjakin won the opening rapid game, but
  Svidler came strongly back by winning the next two. However, Karjakin won the
  fourth rapid game to draw level. In the end, Karjakin took the tie-breaker by
  6-4.

• The book titled The Clintons’ War on Women authored by Roger
  Stone and Robert Morrow was in news in first week of October 2015. It came into
  news as it claims that Hillary Clinton who is running for the US President as
  an advocate of women and girls is in actual volatile and prone to violent
  outbursts that terrorize even her own husband.
• The New York Times bestselling author Roger Stone and
  researcher and alternative historian Robert Morrow through this book reveals
  how Bill and Hillary Clinton systematically abused women and others—sexually,
  physically, and psychologically—in their scramble for power and wealth. They
  together map the arc of Bill and Hillary’s crimes and cover ups.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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