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. Current Affairs week 40 Pdf . 27 Sep 3 October 2015

Best of Current Affairs Desk5 October

IN THIS WEEK

What's New nirdeshak.com

INS Kochi

G20 Summit 2018

Climate-Change Policy

Benchmark Repo rate

Gujarat Tourism Policy

Declaration of undisclosed

foreign assets

India Worlds No. 1 FDI

Destination

RAILTEL

Dear Readers,

Recently we have initiated Best of NirdeshakCurrent Affairs (BNCA) with weekly pdf update.

In todays competitive scenario, it has becomemost crucial to read more analytical andabsorbable content, in order to get best result.The content is developed scientifically developed

so that it becomes short, easy to remember andonly relevant part is recalled for exampreparation. This is helpful for current affairs

preparation, developing acumen for interviews,GD and overall remembering more get bestscores in competitive exams, for Banks, IBPS PO,

SBI, IAS, SSC and other exams.

In the week, information & technology newsremained important as PM Modi visited SiliconValley. It is important to know about newdevelopment at IAF with IACCS. Further know

more about key personalities of the week,banking news, government policies and foreign

relations with neighbours.

Happy learning,

Warm regards

Editorial Team Nirdeshak.com

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Defence

INS Kochi

Kolkata-class guided-missile destroyer, INS Kochi thelargest-ever warship built in India till now, which wascommissioned into Indian Navy.

To know: The commissioning of INS Kochi was doneby Defence Minister ManoharParrikar at an event heldat the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on 30 September

2015. INS Kochi is the second of the three Kolkata-class destroyers beingbuilt at Mazagaon Docks Limited (MDL) at Mumbai for over Rs 4,000 croreapiece. It weighs 7,500-tonne and is the largest-ever warship made in India tilldata. INS Kolkata was the first warship of Kolkata-class and wascommissioned in August last year, while the third INS Chennai will beinducted towards end-2016.

Important facts about INS Kochi:

INS Kochi is the largest-ever warship made in India

It is made indigenously at Mumbai-based Mazagaon Docks Limited (MDL)

INS Kochi weighs over 7500 tonnes, spanning over 164 meters in lengthand 17 meters at the bean. It is propelled by four gas turbines anddesigned to achieve speeds in excess of 30 knots.

The ship is loaded with long-range BrahMos surface-to- surface missile.

It has 76 mm Super Rapid Gun Mount (SRGM) and AK 630 Close InWeapon System (CIWS) designed to take on air and surface targets.

JahiShatrunMahabaho is the motto of INS Kochi

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International

G20 Summit 2018

India will host G20, the prestigious international summit meetduring 2018.

To Know: The G20 member nations took a decision on theChair for 2018 earlier in September 2015 and India wasselected for the same. The Group of 20 (G20) is an

international forum for 20 major economies of the world. It comprisesof Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany,India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi

Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, U.K., U.S. and the European Union. TheG20 operates as a forum and not as an organisation. Therefore, itdoes not have any permanent secretariat or management andadministrative structure. One of the G20 countries is selected to holdthe Chair in rotation. Turkey will chair the G20 Summit of 2015,followed by China (2016), Germany (2017) and India (2018). The hostIndian city for G20 2018 has not been declared New Delhi could hostthis prestigious summit.

Election Spain

Pro-Independence parties won an absolute majority in Catalonia region.

To Know: With this win the pro- independence parties of Spains Cataloniaregion announced that they would now proceed towards the creation of anindependent Catalan state. The Junts per Si (Together for Yes) and far -leftseparatist CUP party are the prominent pro-independence parties of the

region that are fuelling the agenda of gaining independence from Spainunilaterally. But the road ahead is controversial and anything but clear as theSpanish government has consistently refused to allow a legally recognisedreferendum to take place. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has arguedthat because the loss of Catalonia would affect all of Spain, the democraticapproach would be for all of the country to vote in a referendum onCatalonias future.

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Environment

Climate-Change Policy

India to cut the Carbon produced by 33%

India released its climate-change policy statement on 1October 2015. The foremost target proposed in this policyis To cut the carbon produced per unit of GDP growthby 33-35% by 2030 from 2005 levels

To Know: India submitted its climate-change pledges inform of comprehensive climate-change policy to the United

Nations (UN) on 1 October 2015.

India, which is the worlds third -largest emitter of greenhouse gases, promised tomake its economy more energy efficient and cut the carbon produced per unit ofGDP growth by 33-35% by 2030 from levels of 2005. This means that India isnot yet prepared to go as far as China, the worlds biggest emitter, whichpledged at the end of June to reduce its carbon intensity by 60-65% by 2030.The policy also mentions that India would target 40% cumulative installed powercapacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, though this would require U.N.

financial support.India also stressed that coal would continue to dominate power generation for itsmore than 1 billion people in the future, though stressed its commitment to cleanenergy technologies.

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Banking

Benchmark Repo rate

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan cut the benchmarkRepo rate by 50 basis points to a four-year low of 6.75%.

To Know: The last single-time reduction of 50 basis points in the Repo ratewas done on 4 March 2009, when the rate was reduced from the then 5.50%to 5.00%. After that no 50 basis point reduction in Repo rate was done till 29September 2015. The Repo rate of 6.75% is also the lowest rate since 3 May2011. The cut is the third one during fiscal year 2015-16 and fourth one during2015 and this means that Repo rate has been cut by 100 basis points during2015-16. Repo (or Repurchase) rate is the rate at which the RBI lends shot-term money to the banks. When the repo rate decreases, borrowing from RBIbecomes cheaper. Repo rate is the primary reflector of interest rates in theeconomy. It is worth mentioning that the corporate world as well as the UnionFinance Ministry had made impassioned calls to reduce Repo rate. The BSESensex, which traded with nearly 300 points down ahead of the RBI policyannouncement, bounced back in the green with gain of 162 points by the endof trading.

Important Highlights of the 4th Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement

Repo rate cut by 50 bps to 6.75% Reserve repo rate cut to 5.75% Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) unchanged at 4% Growth estimate for 2015-16 marginally cut to 7.4% from 7.6% FPI investment limit in Government bonds to be hiked to 5% by 2018

Banking Policy Overseas Rupee-denominated BondsThe Reserve Bank of India, announced that Indian corporates will be allowedto raise rupee-denominated bonds overseas for most purposes barring a few.RBI intends to allow rupee bonds to be issued overseas as a way to reducethe currency risk associated with foreign borrowings. What are the main enduse restrictions for usage of these rupee-denominated bonds? Companiescannot use proceeds from overseas rupee bonds for real estateactivities, land purchase, investing in capital markets and on-lending toother entities for such activities

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To Know:

Overseas rupee- denominated bonds are also known as Masala bonds.

The RBI has allowed these bonds so as to reduce the currency risk

associated with foreign borrowings.

Companies, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and infrastructureinvestment trusts (InvITs) will be able to raise overseas rupee bonds.

These bonds must have a minimum maturity of five years.

Under the automatic route, companies can raise up to $750 million perannum. Cases beyond this limit will require prior approval.

SBI - slashed minimum lending or base rate by 0.4%.

To Know: Just after Repo rate reduction by the RBI, the SBIdecided to reduce the base rate by 0.40% to 9.3% with effectfrom 5 October 2015. With the reduction in the base rate, allloans of SBI, including home, auto and corporate, wouldbecome cheaper by at least 0.40%, making RBIs base rate thelowest in the market. The SBI, thus also set the trend for benign

interest rate regime.

India StatesGujarat Tourism Policy

Gujarat accorded industry status to tourism as states Tourism Policy for2015-20.

To Know: Gujarat Tourism Policy for 2015-20 was unveiled on 27 September2015 by state tourism Minister Saurabh Patel. In this policy, the stategovernment accorded industry status to tourism for the first time. The policydocument pegs the investment potential in the tourism sector in the state at$4 billion or around Rs 26,000 crore by 2025. The policy states that the statewill be one of the top five states in India in terms of tourist footfalls by 2025.The tourist flow in Gujarat during the year 2014-15 was 32.7 million, whichwas 13.56% higher than that of the previous year.

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National

Rural Development

Intensive Participatory Planning Exercise II

To know : The process for Intensive Participatory PlanningExercise II (IPPE-II) primarily seeks to address the variousfacets of poverty of rural families by incorporating all ruraldevelopment programmes in a single participatory

planning exercise.

IPPE-II is being undertaken by the Rural Development Ministry in 2,532

poorer Backward Blocks of the country. Under this initiative the entire planning process will be explained to all

elected members of Gram Sabha and the data recently released from thesocio-economic survey will be shared with them.

IPPE-II would include, apart from MGNREGA, the National RuralLivelihood Mission (NRLM), the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya GrameenKaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), National Social Assistance Programme(NSAP) and the Indira AawaasYojana (IAY).

Declaration of undisclosed foreign assets

Total declaration worth Rs. 3,770 crore from638 declarants

To Know: The Finance Ministry on 1 October2015 announced that a total of 638declarations were received under the

compliance window declaring undisclosedforeign assets amounting to Rs. 3,770 crore till 30 September 2015. Thesefigures are subject to final reconciliation. Tax at the rate of 30% and penalty atthe rate of 30% is to be paid by 31 December 2015. It is worth mentioning thatthe Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition ofTax Act, 2015 was enacted by the Union Govt. to deal with the menace ofblack money stashed abroad. The compliance window was opened from 1July to 30 September 2015 under the provisions of this act for persons whohave undisclosed foreign assets which they had not disclosed for thepurposes of Income-tax so far.

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Financial

India Worlds No. 1 FDI Destination

India emerged as the worlds number onedestination for foreign direct investment (FDI)during the first half of 2015.

To know: The Financial Times newspaperreported that India received $31 billion inforeign capital inflows in the first half of 2015.China was second with $28 billion and USthird with $27 billion. This data was based ona ranking of the top destinations for greenfield

investment (measured by estimated capital expenditure) in the first half of2015. It is worth mentioning that India was on 5 th place during thecorresponding period of 2014. The 15-month-old NarendraModi governmenthas taken several initiatives to make India an attractive investmentdestination.

Forward Markets Commission (FMC)

FMC merged with SEBI on 28September 2015 to bring to surfacefirst major case of merger of tworegulators in India.

To Know: Forward MarketsCommission (FMC) was merged

into Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as Union Finance Minister ArunJaitley rang the customary stock market bell to formalise the amalgamation atMumbai. With this merger, the commodities market entities would get a timeframe ofup to one year to adjust to the new regulations as they would have to follow thesame norms that are applicable to their peers in the equity segment. It is worthmentioning that this merger was planned by the Congress Government. However,the announcement of this merger was done in the Union Budget 2014-15. Theapparent regulatory failure of FMC in the National Spot Exchange Ltd. scam casehad precipitated this merger. The FMC has been regulating commodities marketssince 1953, but lack of powers has led to wild fluctuations and alleged irregularities

remaining untamed in this market segment.

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Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)

To Know: The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) aims to coverautomatic sharing of information on bank accounts as well as financialproducts such as equities, mutual funds and insurance between India and theUS. It is primarily is aimed at fighting the menace of black money stashedabroad. From 30 September 2015, US-based banks, mutual funds, insurance,pension and stock-broking firms will report their Indian client details withIndian authorities while Indian entities will do a reciprocal information sharingabout Americans. An official agreement in this regard was signed by the thenrevenue secretary Shaktikanta Das and US ambassador to India RichardVerma in July 2015 in New Delhi.

Indias rank ed 55 th - in the Global Competitiveness Index for 2015

To Know: The Narendra Modi government at theCentre received a big boost as India jumped 16places in the latest edition of the GlobalCompetitiveness Index (GCI). India now ranks55 th among 140 countries, against 71 st in 2014-15.Switzerland tops the latest rankings, followed bySingapore, the US, Germany and Netherlands. But,

despite this massive jump, which follows five years of a decline on the list,India still ranks seven notches lower than it did in 2007.

What is Global Competitiveness Index (GCI)?

The GCI is an annual assessment to gauge the factors driving productivityand prosperity across 140 countries. It measures a countrys performance on12 pillars -1) institutions, 2) infrastructure, 3) macroeconomic environment, 4)health and primary education, 5) higher education and training, 6) goods

market efficiency, 7) labour market efficiency, 8) financial marketdevelopment, 9) technological readiness, 10) market size, 11) businesssophistication and 12) innovation.

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RAILTEL

Google announced setting up of Wi-Fi broadband services at 400 railwaystations in India over the next few years. For this ambitious project, Googlewill tie-up with RAILTEL, which comes under Indian Railways.

To Know: RailTel provides Internet services such as asRailWire throughits extensive fibre network along many of railway lines. According to theannouncement made by Google CEO SundarPichai, Google will helpIndian Railways set up Wi-Fi broadband services at 400 railway stationsin India over the next few years beginning with 100 stations in the initial

phase of the project by end-2016. This huge project will make Wi-Fi availablefor more than 10 million people who pass through every day. This will rank itas the largest public Wi-Fi project in India, and among the largest in the world,by number of potential users. This announcement was made on the occasionof Prime Minister NarendraModis visit to the US and in line with his DigitalIndia initiative to bring one billion Indians.

Paytm get Strategic investment from - Chinese e-commerce giant AlibabaGroup Holding and Ant Financial Services Group.

To Know: Paytm is presently Indias largest mobile payment and commerce

platform. Ant Financial, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, had made its initialinvestment in Paytm in February 2015. On the other hand Alibaba will becomea new investor in Paytm after the completion of this proposed transaction.Investing in Paytm is expected to enhance the ability of Alibaba and AntFinancial to tap opportunities in Indias fast -growing mobile e-commercemarketplace and digital finance industry. The fresh capital infusion will allowPaytm to achieve scale and develop its mobile commerce and paymentecosystem in India and invest in marketing, technology and talent.

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Space

ASTROSAT

Indias first dedicated astronomy satellite ASTROSAT was launchedsuccessfully in the space by ISRO on 28 September 2015.

To Know: ASTROSAT is a first-of-its-kind Indian space observatory to studycelestial objects. Unlike most other telescopes, the five instruments(payloads) of ASTROSAT can observe a wider variety of wavelengths, fromvisible light to the ultraviolet and X-ray bands. Even in the X-ray band, it canstudy both low and high energy X-ray regions of the electromagneticspectrum. It is worth mentioning that till date, Indian astronomers had to relyon international resources for X-ray and ultraviolet data. But this is expectedto change now with ASTROSAT in the space.

The scientific objectives of ASTROSAT mission :

a) Understand high energy processes in binary star systems containingneutron stars and black holes,

b) Estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars,

c) Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lyingbeyond our galaxy,

d) Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky and

e) Perform a limited deep field survey of the Universe in the ultraviolet region.

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Sports

West Indies were out of the top 8 team s in the ICCs ODI rankings of 30

September

West Indies cricket slumped to a new low as they will nottake part in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. This will bethe first time the West Indies have missed out on aChampions Trophy, World Cup or T20 World Cuptournament.

To Know: West Indies will not take part in the 2017Champions Trophy after Pakistan pipped them to eighth

place in the International Cricket Councils one -day rankings at the 30September cut-off. Only the top eight teams on that date are mandated tocompete in the tournament. West Indies had 88 points in ICCs ODI rankingsof 30 September and Pakistan with 90 points pipped them for the eighth spot.Bangladesh, who were last involved in the event in 2006, made their placesure after they beat South Africa in July to take their tally to 96. West Indieshad won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004.