Current Affairs Update – 8-9 November, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here are the important Current Affairs of 6th and 7th November, 2016. These are important for the upcoming IBPS PO Mains, IBPS Clerk Mains and RRB OS-I Mains exam 2016.

COLOR CODES:

• GREY HIGHLIGHTER – Very Important Current Affairs
• GREEN HIGHLIGHTER – Very Important for STOCK GK 

• The Reserve Bank of India on 8
  November 2016 issued new series of notes for 500 rupees and 2000 rupees
  denomination with improved features and newer sizes. Both the designs will be
  very friendly towards the visually-impaired by having features which make it
  accessible for all sections.
• The RBI said, 2000 rupees note,
  which is a first under the denomination, will be called as the ‘Mahatma Gandhi
  (New) Series’ and has a design of the low-cost mission to Mars, the Mangalayan,
  on the reverse. It said that the base colour of the note will be magenta.

1. See through register with
   denominational numeral 2000
2. Latent image with denominational
   numeral 2000
3. Denominational numeral २००० in Devnagari
4. Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi at the
   centre
5. Micro letters ‘RBI’ and ‘2000’ on
   the left side of the banknote
6. Windowed security thread with
   inscriptions ‘भारत’, RBI and
   2000 on banknotes with colour shift. Colour of the thread changes from green to
   blue when the note is tilted
7. Guarantee Clause, Governor’s
   signature with Promise Clause and RBI emblem towards right
8. Denominational numeral with Rupee
   Symbol, 2000 rupees in colour changing ink (green to blue) on bottom right

1. Ashoka Pillar emblem on the right
2. Mahatma Gandhi portrait and
   electrotype (2000) watermarks
3. Number panel with numerals
   growing from small to big on the top left side and bottom right side
4. For visually impaired
5. Intaglio or raised printing of
   Mahatma Gandhi portrait, Ashoka Pillar emblem, bleed lines and identity mark
6. Horizontal rectangle with 2000
   rupees in raised print on the right
7. Seven angular bleed lines on left
   and right side in raised print

1. Year of printing of the note on the
   left
2. Swachh Bharat logo with slogan
3. Language panel towards the centre
4. Motif of Mangalayan
5. Denominational numeral २००० in Devnagari
6. Dimension of the banknote will be
   66 mm × 166 mm

• These banknotes in the Mahatma
  Gandhi (New) Series will not carry the inset letter and will be bearing the
  signature of Dr. Urjit R. Patel, Governor, Reserve Bank of India. The year of
  printing ‘2016’ printed will be available on the reverse of the banknote.
• The Motif of Mangalayan on the
  reverse will depict the country’s first venture into the interplanetary
  space.  The note has other designs,
  geometric patterns aligning with the overall colour scheme, both at the obverse
  and reverse.

• The new design in the 500 rupee
  denomination will be in a different colour, size, theme, design and location of
  security features. The note will be in a stone grey colour and the predominant
  theme will be Delhi’s Red Fort.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi
  announced that 1000 and 500 rupees notes will cease to be legal tender from
  midnight 8-9 November 2016. The announcement was made via a special nationwide
  televised address on 8 November 2016.
• PM Modi in his announcement
  appealed that those who are in possession of these notes can deposit the notes
  in their accounts in banks and post offices from 10 November to 30 December
  2016. He also said that those who are unable to deposit the notes within the
  deadline for some reasons can change them till 31 March 2016 by furnishing ID
  proof (Aadhaar card and PAN card).
• Besides, he also announced that
  new currency notes of 500 and 2000 rupees denomination will be introduced.
• The major objective behind the
  Government’s decision to ban the existing currency denomination is to curb
  black money in the market and cease out face currencies.

• The Defence Acquisitions Council
  (DAC), under the Union Government, on 7 November 2016 approved the guidelines
  for suspension or banning of business dealings with arms companies.
• With the passage of new
  guidelines, the Union Government will no longer impose blanket bans on armament
  companies suspected of corruption.

• The armament companies will be
  blacklisted only for a year at a time, instead of the existing norm of 10 years
  at a go, with fast-track investigations into the charges against them.
• The decision to blacklist a
  company will not be an executive one. It will be done in a collegiate manner by
  a committee which will also include the vice-chiefs of the Army, Navy and IAF.
• The operational implications of
  blacklisting a company will be considered before a final decision is taken.
  Blacklisting will be for a specific equipment or service, without blanket bans.
• Under the new nuanced
  blacklisting norms, procurement of spares for platforms and equipment already
  purchased from a company under the scanner will be allowed.
• Moreover, companies already
  blacklisted will now also be able to appeal to the government for a review,
  based on merits of a case.
• Moreover, blacklisting will be
  done for a specific period of not more than a year at a time, with the aim to
  complete investigations into the charges against a company within six months.
• This easing of the blacklisting
  norms will be a marked departure from the indiscriminate 10-year blanket bans
  imposed earlier.

• GMR Airports Ltd, a subsidiary of
  GMR Infrastructure Ltd, has entered into a concession agreement with the Goa
  government for the development and operation of north Goa’s greenfield
  international airport at Mopa.
• The agreement was signed by RV
  Sheshan, CEO, GMR Goa International Airport Ltd, and RK Srivastava, Chief Secretary
  of Goa, in the presence of Chief Minister Laxmikant Yashwant Parsekar.
• As per the concession agreement,
  GMR will design, build, finance and operate the international airport for 40
  years with extension option for another 20 years. The construction period for
  the first phase of the project is three years from the date of financial
  closure and is expected to be operational till mid-2020.
• In August 2016, GMR won the Mopa
  project through international competitive bidding with Airports Authority of
  India emerging as the second highest bidder, followed by the Essel
  Infra-Incheon consortium.
• The project will operate on
  hybrid till model with 30 per cent cross subsidy. The concession offers 232
  acres of land for commercial city side development for a period of 60 years.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
  on 8 November 2016 notified withdrawal of legal tender of 500 and 1000 rupees
  denominations of Bank Notes of the existing series issued by RBI with effect
  from 9 November 2016.
• The withdrawal came following the
  Gazette Notification No 2652 dated 8 November 2016 issued by Union Government.
• However, a new series of Bank
  Notes called Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series having different size and design,
  highlighting the cultural heritage and scientific achievements of the country,
  will be issued.
• Bank branches will be the primary
  agencies through which the members of public and other entities will be
  exchanging the Specified Bank Notes for Bank Notes in other valid denominations
  or depositing the Specified Bank Notes for crediting to their accounts till 30
  December 2016.

• 9 November 2016 will be a
  non-business working day for all banks. However, branches will function on that
  day to carry out preparations for implementing the scheme as per this circular.
• The Specified Bank Notes stocked
  in ATMs, Cash Deposit Machines, Cash Recyclers, Coin Vending Machines, CIT
  Companies and Business Correspondents will be called back forthwith.
• All ATMs, Cash Deposit Machines,
  Cash Recyclers and any other machine used for receipt and payment of cash shall
  be shut on 9 and 10 November 2016.
• All ATMs and cash dispensing
  machines will be re-configured to disburse bank notes of 100 and 50 rupees
  denominations prior to reactivation of the machines on 11 November 2016.
• Every banking company defined
  under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 shall complete and forward a return
  showing the details of the Specified Bank Notes held by it at the close of
  business as on 8 November 2016 to the concerned Regional Office of RBI.
• The return should include details
  of Specified Bank Notes recalled from ATMs, Cash Deposit Machines, Cash
  Recyclers, Coin Vending Machines, CIT Companies, Business Correspondents, etc.
• Arrangement will be made by the
  branches to promptly deposit these Specified Bank Notes with the linked RBI and
  get the amount credited to their account.
• Cash Deposits machines should
  continue to accept Specified Bank Notes up to 30 December 2016.
• Information Material, for
  educating the public regarding withdrawal of Legal Tender character of the
  Specified Bank Notes and salient features of the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series
  Bank Notes, is required to be printed in adequate quantity and distributed to
  the public.
• Banks should identify the staff
  for managing the exchange counters and brief them properly about the scheme and
  the procedure to be followed.
• Banks should provide adequate
  number of note counting machines, UV Lamps, note sorting machines etc. at their
  counters to take care of the work load and timely detection of counterfeit
  notes.

• Banks have to accord top priority
  to provide facility for exchanging deposits of Specified Bank Notes and open
  additional counters to meet the public demand and keep the counters open for
  extended ours.
• The specified bank notes of
  aggregate value of 4000 rupees or below may be exchanged for any denomination
  of bank notes having legal tender character, with a requisition slip in the
  format specified by RBI and identity proof.
• There shall not be any limit on
  the quantity or value of the specified bank notes to be credited to the account
  maintained with the bank by a person.
• Cash withdrawal from a bank
  account over the counter will be restricted to 10000 rupees per day subject to
  an overall limit of 20000 rupees a week from the date of the notification until
  the end of business hours on 24 November 2016, after which these limits will be
  reviewed.
• There shall be no restriction on
  the use of any non-cash method of operating the account of a person including
  cheques, demand drafts, credit or debit cards, mobile wallets and electronic
  fund transfer.
• Withdrawal from ATMs will be
  restricted to 2000 rupees per day per card up to 18 November 2016 and the limit
  will be raised to 4000 rupees per day per card from 19 November 2016.
• Any person who is unable to
  exchange or deposit the specified bank notes in their bank accounts on or
  before the 30 December 2016 shall be given an opportunity to do so at specified
  offices of the Reserve Bank or such other facility until a later date as may be
  specified by it.
• While crediting the value of
  Specified Bank Notes to Jan Dhan Yojna Accounts, the usual limits will apply
  mutatis mutandis.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
  on 7 November 2016 issued the Clarifications on hedging for External Commercial
  Borrowings (ECB).
• The Clarifications were issued
  under section 10(4) and 11(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.

• Wherever hedging is mandated by
  RBI, the ECB borrower will be required to cover principal as well as coupon
  through financial hedges. The financial hedge for all exposures on account of
  ECB should start from the time of each such exposure.
• A minimum tenor of one year of
  financial hedge will be required with periodic rollover duly ensuring that the
  exposure on account of ECB is not unhedged at any point during the currency of
  ECB.
• Natural hedge, in lieu of
  financial hedge, will be considered only to the extent of offsetting projected
  cash flows in matching currency, net of all other projected outflows. For this
  purpose, an ECB may be considered naturally hedged if the offsetting exposure
  has the maturity within same accounting year.

• India and the United Kingdom on 7
  November 2016 inked two pacts to boost cordial relations between the two
  nations. The pacts were inked during the visit of Theresa May, the Prime
  Minister of the United Kingdom to India.
• PM Theresa May was on a three Day
  visit to India (6 November to 8 November 2016).

• MoU on Ease of Doing Business: The MoU intends to make expertise
  from different departments of the UK Government which have led the ease of
  doing business drive in the UK available to the relevant departments and
  agencies of the Government of India. It includes exchange between the officials
  and sharing of best practices and technical assistance for effective
  implementation of the initiatives of GOI to improve its ranking in the ease of
  doing business. Important areas of cooperation include support to businesses
  and startups, tax administration, regulatory regimes, competition economics,
  etc.
• MoU for cooperation in the field of intellectual property: The MoU
  envisages establishing a mechanism for furthering cooperation between the
  Intellectual Property Offices of India and the UK in the field of IP and
  related information technology services.

• The Union Tourism Ministry is all
  set to name Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the mascot of its ‘Incredible India’
  campaign.
• The position was lying vacant
  since Aamir Khan’s ouster as the campaign’s brand ambassador in January 2016
  for his remarks on Indian intolerance. Names of Bollywood superstars, Amitabh
  Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra were doing rounds as likely contenders of the
  role.

• The Uttarakhand High Court on 8
  November 2016 ordered all hill stations and glaciers in the state to be
  declared as eco-sensitive within three months. The order also demands putting a
  ban on all construction within 25 km radius of the glaciers.
• The order came on a Public
  Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the court’s intervention for stopping illegal
  construction and felling of trees in the vicinity of Nainital.
• A Division Bench of the High
  Court comprising Justice Rajeev Sharma and Justice Alok Singh also stated that
  there should be restriction on the number of people visiting the glaciers besides
  imposition of a tax on them.

• The Indian army on 6 November
  2016 successfully completed its task of laying an irrigation pipeline in the
  Demchok region of Eastern Ladakh despite a three-day face-off with the Chinese
  troops over the construction work.
• The project was being conducted
  under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to link the
  villages in the region with a hot spring.

• US Republican Donald Trump on 9
  November 2016 won the US presidential elections in a stunning victory. He won
  the elections by 276 seats.
• He is scheduled to take office as
  the 45th President of the United States of America (USA)on 20 January 2017. He
  will succeed Barack Obama.
• He won Florida, Ohio, Iowa and
  North Carolina, while Democrat Hillary Clinton, who won 218 seats, took Virginia
  and Nevada, ABC projects.

• NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale
  (MMS) Mission on 5 November 2016 set the Guinness world record for highest
  altitude fix of a Global Positioning System (GPS) signal at 70000 kilometers
  above the surface of the Earth.
• Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)
  mission successfully completed commissioning activities on 1 September 2015 and
  is now in full science mode.

• Vinod Rai was on 7 November 2016
  appointed as the Chairman of Fund Trustee and Advisory Commission of Kerala.
• He will be entrusted with the
  responsibility to ensure that the funds of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment
  Fund Board (KIIFB) are properly utilised and the interest of investors is
  protected.
• Moreover, the board of the
  reconstituted KIIFB under Chairman Pinarayi Vijayan also decided to appoint
  Usha Thorat, former Deputy Governor of RBI and Prakash Bakshi, former Chairman
  of NABARD, as the other members of the FTAC.
• The FTAC will have a two-year
  term and the members cannot be removed either by the government or the KIIFB.
  They will be removed from the FTAC if they are convicted for misbehaviour and
  corruption.

• Tata on 8 November 2016 announced
  that Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016 will be
  conferred on acclaimed author Amitav Ghosh.
• The award will be presented to
  Ghosh at Tata Literature Live!’s annual awards ceremony to be held on 20
  November 2016 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Nariman
  Point, Mumbai.

• The 39th Jamnalal Bajaj
  Foundation Awards for the year 2016 were conferred on 7 November 2016 in
  Mumbai, Maharashtra.
• Well-known Gandhian and President
  of Tunisia’s Ennahdha Party, Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi was among the four
  prominent personalities conferred with the prestigious award.

• Mohan Hirabai Hiralal, founder
  and convenor of Vrikshamitra: He was honoured for outstanding contribution in
  the field of Constructive Work. He worked for village empowerment in Menda
  Lekha in Gadchiroli, which became the first village in India to exercise
  community rights to harvest bamboo under the Forest Rights Act.
• BonBehari Vishnu Nimbkar, founder
  of Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute: He was presented the award for
  application of science and technology for rural development.
• Dr. Nannapaneni Manga Devi,
  founder secretary of Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer and Chetana Charitable Trust:
  He was honoured with the award for development and welfare of women and
  children.

• President Pranab Mukherjee on 7
  November 2016 presented the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards to the winning
  children of IGNITE competition at Rashtrapati Bhavan. IGNITE competition was
  organized by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF).
• This year, a total of 31 students
  have been awarded for their ideas/innovations. Overall, 55,089 submissions of
  students from 458 districts of all the states & Union Territories of India
  were received during the IGNITE 16 competition, which ran from 1 September 2015
  to 31 August 2016.
• Dr APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award
  is an effort to focus primarily on the creativity of the children and promote
  inclusive and compassionate thinking among them.

• Syrian freelance journalist Hadi
  Abdullah on 8 November 2016 was awarded with Reporters without Borders
  (RSF)-TV5 Monde prize. Abdullah, 29, was awarded in the journalist category for
  reporting from some of the most perilous zones in his country’s five-year-old
  war.
• The award was presented in
  Strasbourg on the sidelines of the World Forum for Democracy, a meeting
  organised by the Council of Europe.
• In a statement, RSF said that
  Abdullah has unhesitatingly ventured into danger zones, where Western
  journalists are no longer willing to go, to film and interview civilians.

• M. Hamid Ansari, Vice President
  of India, on 5 November 2016 released the book titled An Era of Darkness: The
  British Empire in India. The book is authored by Shashi Tharoor.
• The book offers an insight on the
  ways in which the colonizers exploited India, ranging from the drain of
  national resources to Britain, the destruction of the Indian textile, steel-making
  and shipping industries, and the negative transformation of agriculture.
• On the other hand, Tharoor offers
  the arguments of Western and Indian apologists for Empire on the supposed
  benefits of British rule, including democracy and political freedom, the rule
  of law, and the railways. He goes on to examine the few unarguable benefits,
  such as the English language, tea, and cricket, were never actually intended
  for the benefit of the colonized but introduced to serve the interests of the
  colonizers.

• Janet Reno, the first woman to
  serve as U.S. Attorney General, passed away on 7 November 2016 at Miami,
  Florida. She was 78.
• As the U.S. Attorney General,
  Reno played key roles in some of the most acrimonious events of the Bill
  Clinton administration.

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