. Current Affairs week 45 Pdf.

02 08 November 2015

Best of Current Affairs Desk

09 November

IN THIS WEEK

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Sovereign Gold Bonds

Justice Tirath Singh Thakur
WEF India Summit
7 Naxal-affected States
Vikalp Pilot Scheme
Mysuru (Karnataka)
Tata Motors
Brijmohan Lall Munjal

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Emergency in Maldives
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Banking
Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
The scheme of sovereign gold bonds of
Government of India are being accepted from
5 November 2015.
To Know: Sovereign gold bonds will be
issued by the Reserve Bank of India. They will
carry the market value of particular amount of
gold it is issued. If the price of gold increases the value of the bond will also go up,
thus benefiting investors.
The applications for these bonds will be accepted from 5 November to 20
November 2015 by the RBI. The bonds will be issued from 26 November
2015.
Investors can buy a minimum of 2 units or 2 grams and a maximum at 500
grams per fiscal year. Investors will get a fixed rate of interest of 2.75% per
annum (payable every 6 months) on the initial value of investment.
The bonds have a maturity period of 8 years, with exit option from the fifth
year. Holdings can be redeemed in multiples of one gram.

Appointment
Justice Tirath Singh Thakur
To be appointed as the new Chief Justice of India (CJI), as
announced on 4 November 2015.
To Know: Justice Tirath Singh Thakur (Justice T.S. Thakur) will
replace Justice H.L. Dattu as the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court on 2 December 2015. His name was recommended by
Justice H.L. Dattu on 4 November 2015. However, his Warrant of
Appointment would be issued only after the President gives his approval.
Justice Thakur is the senior-most judge after Justice Dattu and his
appointment as the next CJI also signals that seniority reigns supreme in
the highest judiciary following the revival of the Collegium system.
rd
Justice Thakur will become 43 CJI of India and would be in office till 4
January 2017.

Railways
District Zero - Nabarangpur
The Odisha Government and Ministry of Railways entered into a historic
agreement on 4 November 2015 that is likely to lay the track for the first
railway line to reach one of Indias most backward districts. Which district of
Odisha is this, which is often described as District Zero by the media?
Nabarangpur
To Know: Nabarangpur in southern Odisha is often termed as one of the
most backward districts of the country. Lack of rail connectivity is often listed
as the major reason for areas backwardness.
On 4 November 2015 a path-breaking agreement for setting up a Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for constructing a 40-km link connecting the
Nabarangpur district headquarters to the nearest station at Jeypore in
neighbouring Koraput district was signed between the Govt. of Odisha and
Indian Railways.
The said rail-link was evidently held up for so long because it was found to
be economically unviable. Odisha Govt. has decided to go for the SPV
model with the state government contributing 51% of the project cost,
including land. This would result in connect Nabarangpur district to rest of
the country.
Vikalp Pilot Scheme
Pilot Scheme launched on 1 November 2015 under which waitlisted
passengers can get confirmed accommodation in next alternative train if they
opt for the option while booking their tickets online.
To Know: Vikalp is the name of the new alternative train accommodation
scheme, which was launched on 1 November 2015 by Indian Railways. It has
initially been launched on a pilot basis on two sectors Delhi-Lucknow and
Delhi-Jammu.
Initially, Vikalp scheme will be available only for the tickets booked through
internet for six months and option will be limited to mail and express trains
on the two selected sectors. As per the scheme, waitlisted passengers of a
train would be given option of getting confirmed accommodation in the
next train running on the route.
Passenger, if opts for the Vikalp scheme while booking tickets online, will
get SMS alert on their mobile phone about getting confirmed
accommodation in alternative train. Railway aims to achieve the twin
objectives of providing confirmed accommodation to waitlisted passengers
and ensure optimal utilisation of available accommodation by this scheme.

Economy
WEF India Summit
World Economic Forums (WEF) India summit was inaugurated by Union
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at New Delhi on 4 November 2015. Participants
from across various fields engaged in an intense one-day dialogue during the
summit. What was the theme of this WEF India Summit? Delivering
Growth in the New Context
To Know: The WEF India Summit 2015 witnessed participation of more than
250 national stakeholders and leaders from government, including 8
ministers, business and civil society. The participants engaged in an intense
one-day dialogue looking at the fast-changing economic, political and social
landscape in India.

The participants deliberated on forces of change in India in the context of

five of WEFs global challenges a) agriculture and food security, b)
environment and resource security, c) employment, skills and human
capital, d) long-term investing, infrastructure and urban development and
e) financial inclusion.

Moodys Global Rating

What is the latest outlook of global Global rating agency Moodys with regards
to the Indian banking system as disclosed by the agency on 1 November
2015? It will remain stable over the next 12-18 months
To Know: Thus Moodys has upgraded its outlook for the Indian banking
system to stable from negative. This has been done on account of gradual
improvement in operating environment.
It is worth mentioning that Moodys has maintained a negative outlook for
the Indian banking system since November 2011. Negative outlook was
kept primarily due to deteriorating asset quality of Indian banks.
Moodys in its report, Banking System Outlook India: Gradual
Improvement in Operating Environment Drives Stable Outlook, said the
stable outlook is based on its assessment of five drivers including
improvement in operating environment and stable asset risk and capital
scenario.

Information Technology
King Digital Entertainment
Which US-based gaming company will acquire King Digital
Entertainment, the creator of the iconic Candy Crush Saga, for
$5.9 billion, as disclosed on 3 November 2015? Activision
Blizzard
To Know: Activision Blizzard is the producer of world famous
World of Warcraft and Call of Duty games. It will acquire King
Digital Entertainment for a cash-deal worth $5.9 billion. The acquisition would
make Activision Blizzard a global leader in interactive entertainment across
mobile, console and PC platforms.
Activision Blizzard is offering $18 in cash for each King share, and the deal
is expected to boost Activisions earnings by about 30%.
The Call of Duty series is one of the worlds best-selling console games,
while Candy Crush Saga is among the most popular games on mobile
devices. Video game publishers are switching from the physical sale of
games to digital growth as consumers move from consoles to playing on
smartphones and tablets.
King Digital Entertainment has focused on a business model that allows
users to play a game for free, but pay extra for additional features.

National
7 Naxal-affected States
Union Government held a meeting of Chief Ministers of seven Naxal-affected
States on 3 November 2015 in view of continuous incidents of Maoist
violence. This important meeting was held to chalk out a strategy to fight the
Naxal menace and was chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Which 7 Naxal-affected states were invited to this meeting? 1)
Chhattisgarh, 2) Jharkhand, 3) Bihar, 4) Andhra Pradesh, 5)
Maharashtra, 6) Odisha and 7) Telangana
To Know: The meeting discussed overall Left-wing extremism (LWE)
scenario in 35 worst-affected states in the said 7 sates. Altogether 105
districts in 10 states are affected by Naxal violence, of which 35 districts in
seven states are considered to be worst-hit.
The main agenda of the meeting was Action against mass front
organisations of the CPI (Maoist), preparation of specific anti-LWE
operations plans and checking of flow of funds to the LWE cadres.
The meeting formulated plans on how to maximise the use of around
1,10,000 paramilitary personnel currently deployed in Naxal-hit states,
monitoring of pilferage of explosives and IEDs (improvised explosive
device), rehabilitation of family members of persons killed in LWE violence
and investigation of important cases against the naxalites with the National
Intelligence Agency (NIA) and state police forces.

Project Loon
Internet giant Google is poised to partner BSNL on a pilot
project for providing Internet connectivity by using large
balloons. What is the name of this project which uses big
balloons floating at a height of 20 kilometres above earth
surface for transmission of Internet services? Project
Loon
To Know: Google has recently approached Indian government to seek
permission to set up the Project Loon and Drone-based Internet
transmission. The govt. has approved testing of the project as of now. A

committee under chairmanship of Secretary, Department of Electronics and

Information Technology (DEITY), has been formed to work on it.
Google is now poised to partner with BSNL for testing this technology by
using broadband spectrum in 2.6 Ghz band.
Google, under its Project Loon, is using big balloons floating at a height of
20 kilometres above earth surface for transmission of Internet services. It
has already tested this technology in New Zealand, California (the U.S.)
and Brazil.
As per Google, each balloon can provide connectivity to a ground area
about 40 km in diameter using a wireless communications technology
called LTE or 4G. One major advantage of this project will be that it will not
require mobile towers for Internet transmission.

Place
Mysuru (Karnataka)
Which railway station became the first visually-challenged-friendly station in
India on 3 November 2015? Mysuru (Karnataka)
To Know: Mysuru became countrys first visually challenged friendly station
on 3 November after many important info-objects such as tactile maps of the
railway station and train schedules in Braille were unveiled at the Mysuru
Railway station on this day.
Along with tactile maps of station describing the location and distance of
entrance, platforms, counters, washrooms etc., schedule of trains,
showing their arrival and departure time, the authorities have also put up
400 metal signages in Braille along the railings of the staircases leading
various platforms. The menu cards at the canteen and food plaza at the
station are also being made available in Braille.
Anuprayaas, an NGO assisted the railways in make Mysuru railway station
blind-friendly.

Vienna (Austria)
2-day talks to seek a diplomatic solution to
end the Syrian civil war were held on 29-30
October 2015.
To Know: 11 countries met at Vienna on 2930 October 2015 with the primary objective
to seek a diplomatic solution to end the
Syrian civil war. These 11 countries were
the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Qatar, Lebanon,
France, Britain and Germany. Representatives of the European Union also
took part in the talks.
However, the absence of representatives of the Syrian government and
the Syrian opposition was conspicuous during the talks.
It was the first time that Iran was invited in talks pertaining to Syria.
The Syrian civil war, now in its fifth year, has left 250,000 dead and
displaced more than half of Syrias population of 22 million, according to
the United Nations. The war has greatly contributed to European migrant
crisis. It also created a power vacuum that allowed Islamic State militants
to seize large swaths of eastern Syria and western Iraq.

T-Hub start-up incubator

A public private partnership (PPP) model, was inaugurated on 5 November
2015 by industrialist Ratan Tata. This start-up incubator, which is the largest
in India till date, has been established in which city? Hyderabad
To Know: With opening of T-Hub, a brand new 70,000 square feet facility for
giving motivation push to start-ups, Telangana capital Hyderabad has bid its
claim to become Indias start-up capital. This establishment expects to house
over 300 start-ups and have a futuristic workspace for up to 800 people. The
Telangana government has invested Rs 40 crore to build this biggest
incubator facility in the country.

T-Hub is a PPP (public-private partnership) between the Government of

Telangana, IIIT-Hyderabad, ISB and NALSAR and key private sector
leaders. As many as four angel networks, 30 seed funds and 20 venture
capital funds have been roped in to participate in accelerating the start-up
activity.

International
China Aviation
China made an aviation history on 2 November 2015 as it unveiled countrys
first big homegrown passenger jet off the assembly line in Shanghai on this
day. With this China joined an elite group of countries capable of making large
passenger aircrafts. What is the name of this first Chinese passenger jet?
C919
To Know: China unveiled its first large passenger jet C919 at a hangar near
Shanghais Pudong international airport on 2 November 2015. This 158seater passenger jet aims to rival Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.
C919 has been developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of
China (Comac). Work on this aircraft began in 2008 and the first test flight
of the aircraft is expected to take place in 2016. However, many of the
planes systems have been provided by foreign companies, including
Honeywell and Rockwell Collins.
Development of passenger jet by the country is being seen as a major
achievement by the country. It also has a huge symbolic value for the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Corporate
Tata Motors
Which Indian automobile car company has roped in Argentinian
football legend Lionel Messi as the new global brand ambassador for
its passenger cars, as disclosed on 2 November 2015? Tata
Motors
To Know: A senior officials of Tata Motors confirmed that Messi has
been roped in to promote companies passenger cars. Messi himself
drives a Range Rover whose manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover, is owned by
Tata Motors.

The company will now kick off a campaign #madeofgreat on 3 November

2015 seeking to showcase the confluence of two global brands, Tata
Motors and Lionel Messi.

Reliance Communications merger with MTS India

To Know: MTS India is the joint-venture between Indias Sistema
Shyam TeleServices and Russian telecommunication company
Mobile TeleSystems (MTS). The entity provides a variety of
wireless, broadband and mobile communication services under the brand
name MTS.
On 2 November MTS India announced its merger with Anil Ambani-led
Reliance Communications (RCom). The main feature of this merger is that
it has resulted in RCom having overtaken Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance
Jio as the holder of the biggest amount of 800 MHz 4G spectrum in India.
800 MHz 4G spectrum is considered most appropriate because it can go
inside houses and buildings, unlike other bands which are not very good
for in-building use.

Death
Brijmohan Lall Munjal
The Leading industrialist, who passed away on 1 November
2015, was the founder of which Indian automobile behemoth?
Hero MotoCorp
To Know: Brijmohan Lall Munjal is widely regarded as the
father of the Indian two-wheeler industry. He was the founder
of Hero Motocorp, the worlds largest two-wheeler
manufacturer.
Born in 1923 in Punjabs Kamalia, now in Pakistan, Brijmohan Munjal and
his brothers shifted base to Amritsar in 1943 and then to Ludhiana, where
they gave shape to their bicycle component business. The business
graduated to cycle manufacturing and in 1975, Hero Cycles became the
largest cycle producer in India.
Later Munjal inked an agreement with Honda in the 1980s to manufacture
motorcycles in India. Hero Honda was born as a result of the 1984
agreement and the entity ruled the motorcycle market in India. In 2011,
Hero parted ways with Honda to create Hero MotoCorp. Both Honda and
Hero have grown since then although Hero remains the largest player with
revenues of Rs 27,500 crore in FY15.
He was conferred with the Padma Bhushan, Indias third civilian honour in
2005. He passed away at the age of 92 at a Delhi hospital. His last rites
were performed on 2 November 2015.

Personality
Harjit Singh Sajjan
An India-born former soldier was inducted into the Cabinet of
the new Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on 4
November 2015.
To Know: Harjit Singh Sajjan was named as the Minister of
National Defence in the newly constituted Cabinet of Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau on 4 November 2015. Sajjan was
elected to Canadian Parliament for the first time in last months election.
Sajjan was born in Punjab (India) in a Sikh family. His family immigrated to
Canada when he was five years old. He grew up in Vancouver. He joined
Vancouver Police Department and worked for 11 years and later became
a regular in Canadian Army. In 2011, he became the first Sikh to
command a Canadian Army regiment when he was named commander of
the British Columbia Regiment.
Sajjans appointment as Defence Minister is illustrative of the younger,
more diverse cabinet that new liberal PM Trudeau had aimed to create.
Sajjan will oversee an anticipated change in Canadas military involvement
in the battle against militants in Syria and Iraq. Newly sworn-in Liberal
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already said he wants to end Canadas
air strikes in the region in favour of providing humanitarian help.

Balwant Singh Ramoowalia

New minister inducted in the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet by Chief
Minister Akhilesh Yadav on 31 October 2015.
To Know: Balwant Singh Ramoowalia is a former union
minister and a member of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). He
was Union minister for Labour Welfare in 1996 as Rajya Sabha
member and was two- time Lok Sabha member for SAD.
But on 31 October he was surprisingly included in the newly reconstituted
Cabinet of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. Yadav had
expanded his Cabinet a day after sacking 8 ministers of his Cabinet.
Ramoowalias induction was surprising because he had not joined the
Samajwadi Party till the day of his induction. Apart from this he is not
associated with UP politics in any way and is not a member of either
Houses of UP Assembly.

Political
CPI (M)
Which political party of the country is planning to launch a call-taxi service on
the lines of cab aggregators like Uber, Ola and Meru with the objective of
providing job opportunities to taxi drivers? CPI (M)
To Know: CPI (M) leader and former Rajya Sabha MP P. Rajeeve recently
announced that the party is planning to launch a call-taxi service on lines of
leading cab aggregators like Uber, Ola and Meru who have weaned away
customers from conventional taxis. This has resulted in huge job threat to taxi
drivers who are not associated with any of the cab aggregators.
CPI (M) is planning the trial-run of the call-taxi service from November
2015 and this will be done in association with taxi unions. It is worth
mentioning that the drivers affiliated to unions like CPI (M)s CITU are now
faced with loss of work due to aggressive policies of cab aggregators.
Party feels that due to low fares and better, technology-based service of
the aggregators, conventional drivers are losing customers to them and
this is resulting in conflicts between conventional taxi drivers and those of
the aggregators.

Sports
Nico Rosberg (Germany)
The Mexican F1 Grand Prix winner on 1 November 2015, made his comeback
to F1 circuit after 23 years.
To Know: Mercedes Nico Rosberg won the Mexican F1 Grand Prix title to
score his first victory for more than four months as he beat Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton (Britain) on 1 November 2015.

This was just the fourth win of the season for Rosberg and this win moved
him back into second in the championship behind Ferraris Sebastian
Vettel (Germany). Williams Valtteri Bottas claimed the third spot.

Education
Initiative by IISC & IITs
IMPRINT India, an initiative to develop a road map for research to solve major
engineering and technology challenges in 10 technology domains relevant for
the country, was launched by President Pranab Mukherjee on 5 November
2015. This is a joint initiative of which prestigious institutions of the country?
IISc (Bangalore) and 5 IITs
To Know: Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore) and 5 Indian Institutes of
Technology (IITs) have done extensive consultations and arrived at specific
themes in each area of research that has immediate social relevance. This
initiative has been named IMPRINT India, where IMPRINT stands for
Impacting Research Innovation and Technology.
IMPRINT India will motivate Indias technical institutions to conduct
research in 10 areas where the country is heavily dependent on foreign
technology. These 10 areas include health care, information and
communication technology, energy, sustainable habitat, nano-technology
hardware, water resources and river systems, advanced materials,
manufacturing, security & defence and environment & climate.
The idea of launching Imprint India originated during the conference of
chairmen, board of governors and directors of IITs, convened by the
President at Rashtrapati Bhavan in August 2014.
It is based on the Prime Minister Narendra Modis suggestion that
research done by institutions of national importance must be linked with
immediate requirements of the society at large.
5 IITs involved in this initiative are IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT
Roorkee, IIT Madras and IIT Bombay.

Foreign Affairs
Emergency in Maldives
State of emergency was declared in Maldives on 4 November 2015, due to
the Discovery of explosive devices near Presidents official
residencereason for declaring 30-days.
Explanation: The tiny Indian Ocean nation of Maldives witnessed frenzy as
explosive devices were discovered near President Abdulla Yameens official
residence in capital Male. There also were reports that huge stashes of
weapons were stolen from army stores. These incidents were perceived as a
threat to the public and the nation and the govt. imposed 30-day emergency
on 4 November.
It is also worth mentioning that the emergency declaration came two days
before a demonstration planned by the main opposition party the
Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). MDP leader Mohamed Nasheed was
jailed in March 2015 after a widely criticised conviction under anti-terror
laws.
The Maldives has been rocked by political infighting in recent weeks, with
Vice-President Ahmed Adeeb arrested in connection with an alleged plot
to assassinate the president by blowing up his boat.

Environment
Solar power Company - SunEdison
US-based solar power company SunEdisonwon a bid to
sell solar power in India at a record low tariff of just Rs.
4.63 per kilowatt-hour.
To Know: According to the information disclosed by the
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Missouri-based
SunEdison won the auction for a 500 megawatt project in
Andhra Pradesh. What was remarkable about this auction was that it was won
for an all-time low solar tariff of just Rs. 4.63 per kilowatt-hour.
The previous lowest solar tariff in India was about 5.05 rupees per
kilowatt-hour for Canadian company SkyPowers project in Madhya
Pradesh.
This bid is expected to give a big boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modis
push for clean energy to combat climate change as falling rates could
unlock more government support for solar and wind energy. Japans
Softbank and iPhone maker Foxconn have already pledged to invest about
$20 billion in solar projects in India.