General Awareness Updates – October 2014

Persons in News

1. Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf declared a state of emergency in the West African nation amid an Ebola outbreak that shows no signs of slowing. The disease is now taking hold in Africa’s most populous nation of Nigeria after a second death among seven confirmed cases in Lagos, the death toll of the epidemic has neared 1,000.

2. Noted Indian historian Bipan Chandra has died, aged 86.

3. Eminent cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma, popularly known as Pran, who gave life to lovable comic characters Chacha Chaudhury and his friend Sabu, is no more. He was 75.

4. Acclaimed actor and Oscar–winning director Richard Attenborough, whose film career on both sides of the camera spanned 60 years, has died. He was 90. 

5. Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy, known as U. R. Ananthamurthy, died, aged 82.


Places in News

Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, has fallen into recession, further weakening President Dilma Rousseff, just weeks before voting in what will be a tough re-election battle.


Awards & Honours

No sportsperson has been named for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna while 15 were recommended for the Arjuna Award this year. The 12-member selection committee, headed by legendary cricketer Kapil Dev, decided not to name any sportsperson out of the seven candidates for the Khel Ratna.


Sports

1. India’s ‘B’ team defeated its ‘A’ side 5-4 in an all-Indian final to clinch the inaugural World Team Billiards Championships title.

2.MOTORRACING

Belgian Grand Prix|

Winner: Daniel Ricciardo (Australia/Red Bull Racing)

Second: Nico Rosberg (Germany/Mercedes)

Third: Valtteri Bottas (Finland/Williams–Mercedes)

3.TENNIS

Rogers Cup

Men’s Singles

Winner: Jo Wilfried Tsonga (France)

Runner-up: Roger Federer (Switzerland)

Women’s Singles

Winner: Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland)

Runner-up: Venus Williams (U.S.)

Western & Southern Open

Winner: Roger Federer (Switzerland)

Runner-up: David Ferrer (Spain)

Women’s Singles

Winner: Serena Williams (U.S.)

Runner-up: Ana Ivanovic (Serbia)

4. Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo has won the UEFA's Best Player in Europe Award for 2013-14, ahead of Manuel Neuer and Arjen Robben, both belonging to Bayern Munich. The Portugal superstar led Real Madrid to a 10th European Cup last season. He bagged 56 goals and made 15 assists for Real Madrid and Portugal.

Economy & Business

1. India’s external debt rose by 7.6 per cent to U.S.$440.6 billion in 2013–14 mainly due to rise in deposits by non–resident Indians (NRI), the Reserve Bank ofIndia said. India’s external debt stood at U.S.$390 billion in the previous financial year.

2. The Central Government notified the liberalised FDI norms for the Railways, permitting 100 per cent foreign direct investment through automatic route in several areas, including high speed trains.

3. India’s fiscal deficit touched 61.2 per cent of full year Budget Estimates or over 3.24 lakh crore in end July.  During the April–July period of 2013–14 fiscal, the deficit was 62.8 per cent of Budget Estimates (BE) of that year.

Miscellaneous

Dedicating INS Kolkata, the first of the Kolkata Class guided missile destroyers to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said military might was the biggest deterrent to war. 

Govt clears mega defence proposals, gives shot in the arm for indigenization

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)–led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government made its first big decisions on equipping the forces, clearing acquisitions and renewals worth 17,000 crore.

The apex Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) emphatically favoured manufacturing in India, even when clearing the procurement of foreign equipment. A long–running tender for buying 197 light utility helicopters (LuH) from the global market has been scrapped, and re–issued in the ‘Buy & Make (Indian)’ category. This requires Indian companies to build the LuH in India, in collaboration, if necessary, with foreign partners. In accordance with the government’s policy, this will create manufacturing jobs, benefiting Indian industry to the tune of 40,000 crore.

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U.S. will help unlock Africa’s growth, promises Barack Obama

The U.S. President Barack Obama announced a commitment of U.S.$33 billion to support development across Africa during a three–day summit with dozens of leaders from the continent. These investments would unlock the next era of African growth, the U.S. President said in his address to a galaxy of African leaders at the U.S.–Africa Summit being hosted by him in Washington. The three–day summit is being attended by leaders from more than 50 African countries. 

China links Pak. to Xinjiang militants in rare public admission

In a rare public admission of Pakistani links to militancy in China’s Muslim–majority Xinjiang province, the official media in Beijing said the co–founder of al–Qaeda linked East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) was indoctrinated in a madarasa in that country.

State–run China Daily published confessions of Memetuhut Memetrozi, 41, co–founder of ETIM which is fighting for secession of Xinjiang from China. He is serving a life sentence for his involvement in terrorist attacks. According to his confession statement, Mr Memetuhut was repatriated by Pakistan’s intelligence service to China. Born in southern Xinjiang’s Hotan prefecture, Mr Memetuhut said he travelled around Central Asia pursuing his interest in Islam. At the end of 1992, he enrolled in an Arab–run school in Pakistan where he came into contact with young religious extremists. The extremists showed him books and videos about religious extremism. 

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Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna launched

Launching his government’s first big ticket social welfare programme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a call for eradicating what he termed as “financial untouchability” of the poor by opening at least one bank account for every family in the country in less than six months.

This essentially means opening a whopping 7.5 crore bank accounts, the process for which was kick–started with 1.5 crore accounts — 50 lakh over the intended target on inaugural day. As per government figures, around 10 crore families do not have a bank account.

“If crores of Indians are outside the ambit of organised financial services because they do not have a bank account even after 68 years of independence, I call it financial untouchability. Gandhiji ended social untouchability, it is our mission to eradicate this kind of untouchability now to fight poverty,” Mr Modi said after launching the programme.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna: In a nutshell

1.   Under the scheme, account holders will be provided zero–balance bank account with RuPay debit card, in addition to accidental insurance cover of 1 lakh.

2.   Those who open accounts by January 26, 2015 over and above the the 1 lakh accident, they will be given life insurance cover of 30,000. 

3.   Six months of opening of the bank account, holders can avail 5,000 loan from the bank.

4.   With the introduction of new technology introduced by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a person can transfer funds, check balance through a normal phone which was earlier limited only to smart phones so far.

5.   Mobile banking for the poor would be available through National Unified USSD Platform (NUUP) for which all banks and mobile companies have come together.

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All coal block allocations since 1993 are illegal, rules SC

the Supreme Court of India held that all coal block allocations made since 1993 till 2010 before pre–auction era during previous NDA and UPA regimes have been done in an illegal manner by an “ad–hoc and casual” approach “without application of mind”. However, the consequences arising from the verdict of such coal blocks will be considered after further hearing by the apex court.

The apex court, which examined the allocation of 218 blocks, said, “Common good and public interest have, thus, suffered heavily” as “there was no fair and transparent procedure, all resulting in unfair distribution of the national wealth”.

A bench headed by Chief Justice R. M. Lodha also held that “no State Government or public sector undertakings of the state governments are eligible for mining coal for commercial use”. The bench also clarified that there was no challenge laid before it for cancellation in respect of blocks where competitive bidding was held for the lowest tariff for power for Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPs) in accordance with the opinion given in Natural Resources Allocation Reference. However, it said “having regard to this, it is directed that the coal blocks allocated for UMPP would only be used for UMPP and no diversion of coal for commercial exploitation would be permitted”.

The bench, also comprising justices Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph, said as allocation made both under the Screening Committee route and the government dispensation route, are arbitrary and illegal, further hearing was needed to determine the consequences for which it would hear the matter on September 1.

Kelkar Committee has recommends market–linked pricing for domestic natural gas

A committee led by former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar has recommended market–linked pricing for domestic natural gas, even as a committee of secretaries is reviewing the formula recommended by the C. Rangarajan panel.

A consultation paper sent to the petroleum ministry by the Kelkar Committee, formed by the previous UPA government last year to suggest a roadmap for cutting import dependency in the hydrocarbon sector by 2030, has suggested market determined pricing for natural gas to make new exploration and production activities viable. The Kelkar Committee has invited stakeholders‘ views on various aspects of the paper.

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