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We therefore brings Daily Current Affairs, which are the summary of the Current Affairs which we cover in our Current Affairs Magazine. You can get read these current affairs in detail in our Monthly Current Affairs Magazine which will be available shortly.
Current Affairs November 30 2015
GOVERNMENT PROPOSES 6 BILLS IN LOK SABHA, 4 IN RAJYA SABHA FOR PASSING
Five Bills for consideration and passing in the Lok Sabha are :
1.The Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015;
2.The Carriage by Air (Amendment) Bill, 2015;
3.The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Amendment) Bill, 2015;
4.The National Waterways Bill,2015
5.The Electricity (Amendment) Bill,2014
6.The Factories (Amendment) Bill
Legislative business proposed to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha includes:
1.The Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2015, as passed by Lok Sabha and to replace an Ordinance;
2.The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013;
3.The Whistle Blower Protection (Amendment) Bill,2015, as passed by Lok Sabha;
4.The Juvenile Justive (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill,2015, as passed by Lok Sabha.
BLOGGER RAIF BADAWI BE PARDONED SOON
The European Parliament last month awarded Badawi, 31, its Sakharov human rights prize. Announcing the award, parliament chief Martin Schulz called on King Salman to immediately release Badawi, denouncing his 10-year jail term and flogging sentence as “brutal torture”. Badawi co-founded the Saudi Liberal Network Internet discussion group. He was detained in 2012 on cyber crime charges and later sentenced for insulting Islam and calling for the end of the influence of religion on public life.
DIGITAL CLIMATE MARCH IN MUMBAI
As countries converge in Paris to discuss climate change, a group of youngsters in Mumbai are taking on the issue in cyberspace and are receiving an overwhelming response. A team of five is organizing the ‘Digital Climate March’ to spread awareness about climate change. What’s unique about the initiative is that the only tool being used to organise and execute the event is social media.
SHIVRAJ SINGH CHOUHAN COMPLETES 10 YEARS AS CHIEF MINISTER
Shivraj Singh Chouhan becomes the the second Madhya Pradesh chief Minister (after Digvijay Singh of Congress) to complete 10 years in office.
AIR INDIA DIRECT FLIGHTS TO WASHINGTON
Air India is considering starting a direct flight to Washington as well as serving new cities in the US soon after it launches its services to San Francisco next month. The national carrier already operates non-stop flights to three US cities – New York, Newark and Chicago.
AFRIDI BECOMES LEADING WICKET TAKER IN T20
Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi became the leading wicket-taker in T20 Internationals, beating countryman Saeed Ajmal’s record for most wickets in the shortest format of the game. Leg-spinner Afridi, who took three for 15 in his four overs during the second T20 against England, took his tally to 86 wickets in as many matches to go past Ajaml’s 85 wickets in 64 matches.
MAHESH GUPTA TAKES OVER AS PHDCCI PRESIDENT
The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) has a new President in Mahesh Gupta. Gupta is currently Chairman of Kent RO Systems Ltd, which is a leading player in water purifier industry. Gupta succeeds Alok Shriram who demited office as PHDCCI President on Friday.
PARLIAMENTARY PANEL FINALISES DRAFT REPORT ON LOKPAL
After deliberations that dragged on for about a year, the Parliamentary Committee examining the Bill on anti-corruption watchdog Lokpal has finalised its draft report and its final version will be submitted to the Rajya Sabha early next month. The 31-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, headed by Congress MP E M Sudarsana Natchiappan, is examining the Lokpal and Lokayuktas and Other Related Law (Amendment) Bill, 2014.
SHENZHEN TO INVEST $200 M IN INDIAN PROJECTS
Shenzhen city, which comes under the Central Government of China, has promised to invest $200 million (approx ₹1,300 crore) in ZTESoft’s smart city projects for Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May this year, the Shenzhen government had signed two MoUs with the Gujarat government in developing smart cities in the State. ZTEsoft is a subsidiary of ZTE Corporation, the largest public telecom equipment manufacturer in China.
UN CHIEF URGED DEVELOPED NATIONS FOR $100 BILLION
On the eve of climate summit in Paris, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has asked developed nations to keep their pledge to provide $100 billion a year by 2020 to support concrete mitigation actions by the developing countries as he underlined the need for a durable universal deal to address the rising greenhouse gas emissions.
CHINA MET POLLUTION REDUCTION TARGETS
China, the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases, has achieved the pollution reduction targets for major pollutants six months ahead of schedule. Environment Minister Chen Jinping said that China has attained the pollution reduction targets for major pollutants outlined in its 12th Five-Year Plan, six months ahead of schedule. Beijing and many parts of China continued to be engulfed with hazardous smog far exceeding safe levels prompting the Chinese environment authority to send special teams in Beijing and to neighbouring cities to covertly search for illegal emissions.
GMR VARALAKSHMI FOUNDATION WINS AWARD
GMR Varalakshmi Foundation (GMRVF), the Corporate Social Responsibility initiative of GMR Group, has won PHD Chamber Annual Awards for Excellence 2015. GMRVF was conferred the ‘PHD Chamber Award for Outstanding Contribution to Social Welfare for the year 2015’.
MANDATORY SAFETY REGISTRATION FOR ELECTRONIC GOODS
To promote ‘Make in India’ in the field of electronics, the government is likely to notify six more products that would require compulsory safety registration from December 1. The six items to be included in the list for ‘Compulsory Registration of Electronics Goods to Indian Safety Standards’ are power adaptors for IT equipment; power adaptors for audio, video, and similar electronic apparatus; UPS/inverters of rating less than or equal to 5kVA; DC/AC supplied electronic control gear for LED modules; cells/batteries for use in portable applications; and fixed general purpose LED luminaries. In October 2013, the government had made registration compulsory for 15 electronic and IT products to ensure safety.
INDIA ADVANCES TIMELINE FOR EMISSION NORMS
The Road Ministry has issued a notification for implementing Bharat Stage-V and Bharat Stage-VI norms for the automobile sector, covering the four-wheeler category. To reduce the harmful effects of emissions on environment, the Ministry has now decided to implement BS-V norms from April 1, 2019. BS-VI norms, which aim at substantial reduction in Nitrogen Oxide levels will be implemented from April 1, 2021.
COMMONWEALTH WANTS LEGALLY-BINDING DEAL IN PARIS
Ahead of the Paris summit, the Commonwealth committed itself to working towards an “ambitious” and “legally-binding” climate deal as it asserted that vulnerable countries must be assisted by the rich nations in combating climate change. The 53-nation bloc, including India, agreed to work towards a legally-binding outcome at the COP21 and said the climate change challenge could only be met by an urgent global response. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj represented India at the 24th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
PV SINDHU WINS MACAU OPEN TITLE
Two-time defending champion P V Sindhu completed a hat-trict of women’s singles title at the USD 120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold after defeating Japan’s Minatsu Mitani in the finals. Sindhu produced a dominating game to notch up a 21-9, 21-23, 21-14 win against sixth seed Mitani in a women’s singles match that lasted an hour and six minutes.
DELHI HALF MARATHON WINNERS
Ethiopian Birhanu Legese and Kenyan Cynthia Limo won the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in the men’s and women’s categories respectively. Lalita Babbar and Nitender Singh Rawat were the best amongst the Indians to win the marathon.
AUSTRALIA WIN MATCH AGAINST NEW ZEALAND
Australia claimed a thrilling three-wicket victory inside three days over New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval in the first-ever day-night Test. Australia won the first Brisbane Test by 208 runs and the second Perth Test was drawn.
SUNIL NARINE GETS ICC BAN FOR ILLEGAL ACTION
The International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that an independent assessment found the bowling action of West Indies spinner Sunil Narine to be illegal. He has been suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect. Narine, whose action was also reported during an Indian Premier League game this year, was cleared by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after giving him a final warning.
SCIENTISTS FOUND NEW TEMPLATE FOR BONE REGROWTH
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IIS) have discovered a new template for bone tissue regeneration by using 3-D scaffolds of graphene composites as they mimic the environment of the bone. The field of ’tissue engineering’ involves the use of a synthetic material as a 3-D support structure to help the cells grow and subsequently heal and restore the original tissue. Tissues or organs of the body often undergo damage in the course of various diseases or due to external injury caused during accidents. Most of the time, these are treated using tissue or organ transplants from healthy donors.
LARGEST DATABASE OF DNA SEQUENCES RELEASED
The European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) has published a new database, JRC GMO-Amplicons, which contains more than 240 000 DNA sequences appearing in genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It will help to verify the presence of GMOs in food, feed and environment. To date, this new database is the largest and most comprehensive in this area and could be key to developing new methods for detecting GMOs in food and feed.
SALMAN RUSHDIE’S LATEST BOOK IN NEWS
US President Barack Obama purchased author Salman Rushdie’s latest book “Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights” published in September. Earlier, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had termed the ban on his other book “Satanic Verses” as “wrong”. Mr Chidambaram was Minister of State Home Affairs when the ban was imposed in October 1988. After the “Satanic Verses” in 1988, Iran’s religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini declared a fatwa on Mr Rushdie, calling for his death, forcing the author to go into exile.
BROWN-LABEL ATMS AND WHITE LABEL ATMS
Tata Communications Payment Solutions that runs the Indicash brand of white-label ATMs as well as brown-label cash vending machines feels the era of bank-run ATMs will soon be history as the industry has almost fully moved to third-party run operations mode. At present, there are 11,000 white-label machines installed by the three operators who got permission from the Reserve Bank to run such machines two years ago. White-label ATMs are those run by companies like Tata Communications, Muthoot Finance and Prism Payment Services and are available for any bank, while brown-label machines are those owned and branded by banks, but could be operated and maintained by third party operators like the Tata Company.
INDIA’S FINANCES IMPROVE : LATEST SURVEY
According to the study jointly brought out by CII and IBA ahead of RBI’s fifth bi-monthly policy review, India’s overall financial conditions have shown a healthy improvement, thanks to low cost of funds, strong liquidity, better external financial linkages and uptick in economic activity, says a survey. The Financial Conditions Index has risen to 70.3, up from 67.8 in the previous quarter.
INDIA JOINS UK AND AUSTRALIA TO HELP POOR NATIONS
India has announced USD 2.5 million for the Commonwealth small states trade finance facility. Facility will be used for the vulnerable nations in the Commonwealth to help them introduce clean energy and reduce green-house gas emissions. Commonwealth has 31 small states as its members out of the 53 countries and trade finance is very important to them. The announcement was made on the second day of the biennial summit of the Commonwealth whose membership includes powerful countries like Britain, Australia, Canada, Singapore and small island nations such the Maldives, Tonga and Nauru.
ARMY CHIEF VISIT TO SRI LANKA
Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag left on a four-day visit to Sri Lanka during which he will review the bilateral defence ties and discuss new avenues of cooperation. The visit assumes special significance in light of increasing defence cooperation between the two countries. In recent years, the Indo-Sri Lanka relationship has been marked by high-level bilateral exchanges in various fields. Among the countries of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), Sri Lanka is the “most important partner and one of our most important neighbours.
NSA ENDS MASS PHONE SURVEILLANCE PROGRAMME
The US National Security Agency (NSA) ended its mass phone surveillance programme and replaced it with a focused and targeted domestic surveillance programme. Under the new programme, the NSA is prohibited from collecting telephone metadata in bulk under the post 9/11 Patriot Act, as it had been doing for years. Instead, the NSA will have to make a request to relevant telephone companies and be granted a court order to get access to metadata records based on specific cases. The reform was a result of a new law passed in June and came more than two years after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the US government’s underground spying programme, which triggered heated debates about privacy and national security.
NICO ROSBERG WINS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX
Nico Rosberg won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with teammate and world champion Lewis Hamilton finishing second. Kimi Raikkonen finishes third. Force India’s Sergio Perez fifth, Nico Hulkenberg seventh
BRITAIN WON DAVIS CUP
Britain won the Davis Cup for the first time in 79 years in Ghent when Andy Murray defeated David Goffin 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 in the first of the reverse singles to take an unbeatable 3-1 lead over Belgium. It was a fitting climax for the 28-year-old Scot to provide the winning point, having won all 11 rubbers he played in during the campaign as the British defeated heavyweights United States, France and Australia before the clincher against Belgium.
INDIAN APPOINTED HEAD OF DUBAI-BASED BANKING GROUP
55-year-old Indian banker Som Subroto has been appointed head of Mashreq’s retail banking group, third-biggest bank by assets. Som Subroto, alumnus of IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad has taken over from Farhad Irani, who is leaving after almost five years.
JAPAN 5,479 CRORE LOAN TO INDIA FOR METRO PROJECT
Japan will give development assistance loan worth Rs 5,479 crore to India for Chennai and Ahmedabad Metro projects. Both countries have signed agreements in this regard. India and Japan have inked agreements “for an official development assistance loan of an amount of 19.981 billion yen (about Rs 1,069 crore) for the Chennai Metro Rail Project (IV) and 82.434 billion yen (about Rs 4,410 crore) for Ahmedabad Metro Project. In last few years, economic cooperation between India and Japan has strengthened and grown into strategic partnership.
YES BANK INVOKES UNITED BREWERIES’ SHARES
Private sector lender Yes Bank has invoked 3.02 per cent stake of United Breweries, pledged by McDowell Holdings, a unit of Vijay Mallya-led UB Group, by selling shares worth Rs 778 crore. The move comes after State Bank of India (SBI) declared Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines and its holding company United Breweries Holdings, as willful defaulters for defaults on nearly Rs 7,000-crore loans to the long-grounded carrier.
58 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES SUSPENDED IN J&K
As many as 58 government employees were placed under suspension after they were found absent from duty in Budgam district of central Kashmir. Deputy Commissioner Budgam Mir Altaf Ahmed inspected various departments and found 58 employees absent.
CHINA’S FIRST COMMERCIAL REGIONAL AIRCRAFT
China’s first commercial regional aircraft, the ARJ21, was delivered yesterday. The passenger plane, produced by the Shanghai-headquartered Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (COMAC), was bought by Chengdu Airlines. Xiangfeng (Flying Phoenix) is a 90-passenger capacity twin-engine jet, with a standard range of 2,220 kms.
COP21 CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT IN PARIS
The 21st United Nations Conference of the Parties, or COP21, have begun in Paris, aims to unite around 150 nations for a single agreement on tackling climate change. The idea is to cap the rate of global warming at 2 degrees Celsius – compared to the current 2.5 to 3.76 degrees Celsius. This will be done by reducing dependence on fossil fuels and shifting towards cleaner energies such as wind or solar power.
EARTH’S FIRST ECOSYSTEMS WERE MORE COMPLEX
Researchers have found that Earth’s first ecosystems were more complex than previously thought. Researchers from Canada, UK and US studied fossils of the extinct organism called Tribrachidium, which lived in the oceans during a period of time called the Ediacaran, which ranged from 635 million to 541 million years ago.
FOREIGN INVESTORS NET OUTFLOW AT $1.5 BILLION
Foreign investors pulled out more than $1.5 billion from the country’s capital markets in November due to lacklustre quarterly earnings and concerns over a possible rate hike by the US Federal Reserve. Net outflow in equities stood at Rs 6,616 crore in November, while it was Rs 3,207 crore from debt, translating into a total of Rs 9,823 crore ($1.5 billion).
SADANAND SINGH IS BIHAR ASSEMBLY PROTEM SPEAKER
Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind administered oath to Congress legislator Sadanand Singh as protem speaker of the newly-constituted 16th state Legislative Assembly. Mr Kovind is a ninth-term lawmaker. He will administer oath to all newly-elected members of the House which convenes for its inaugural session.
BEIJING ISSUES ORANGE ALERT FOR HEAVY SMOG
Beijing issued its highest-level smog alert this year and urged residents to stay indoors as dangerous air pollution continued to cloak swathes of northern China. China’s capital issued an “orange” alert hour after levels of PM2.5 – particles which can penetrate deeply into the lungs – reached more than 15 times recommended levels.
PREM KUMAR ELECTED BJP LEGISLATURE PARTY LEADER IN BIHAR
Seven-time MLA and ex-minister Prem Kumar was unanimously elected as leader of the BJP legislature party in the newly-constituted 16th legislative Assembly.
AUSTRALIA TO SUPPLY OF URANIUM TO INDIA
After eight years of intense negotiations, bureaucratic hurdles and a shifting nuclear policy, the Australian government has finally given the green signal to the export of uranium to India “which can begin immediately”. The Australia-India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement permits Australian companies to commence commercial uranium exports to India, an important milestone in Australia’s relationship with India.