CURRENT AFFAIRS

SIR JOHN –School for Competitive Exams

 CURRENT AFFAIRS – SEPTEMBER'15 - OCTOBER'15 

CURRENT AFFAIRS 22^nd SEPTEMBER’15 – 07^th OCTOBER’15

1. Union cabinet has approved a proposal to build a National War Memorial and Museum near India Gate in New Delhi today. The memorial will be in the in memory of 22,500 soldiers who sacrificed their lives while in the line of duty post-independence.

The Cabinet also cleared 3 new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences which will be established at Nagpur in Maharashtra, Manglagiri in Andhra Pradesh and at Kalyani in West Bengal under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana. The cost will be nearly Rs. 5,000 crore.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved National Watershed Management Project-Neeranchal with an outlay of Rs. 2142 crore. It will ensure access to irrigation to every farmland help achieve objectives of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana for efficient use of water. Also Union cabinet has approved a proposal for Non Gazetted Railways employees to get 78-day wages as productivity-linked bonus for the fiscal 2014-15.

2. The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Conference 2016 will be held in New Delhi from 8th January to 10th January 2016. The Conference 2016 will be organised with an objective for developing a new paradigm for engagement with the Diaspora over the next decade.

3. International Monetary Fund, IMF, has projected India’s economic growth rate at 7.5% in 2016 compared to China’s growth rate of 6.3%, in its latest World Economic Outlook Update. IMF also said growth in India is expected to rise above the rates in other major emerging market economies. The report said the growth will benefit from recent policy reforms, a consequent pickup in investment, and lower commodity prices. On Inflation the report, said in India, it is expected to decline further in 2015, reflecting the fall in global oil and agricultural commodity prices.

The report also projects global growth rate for 2015 at 3.1%, which is 0.3% than in 2014, and 0.2% lower than the forecasts in the July 2015 World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update.

4. Swedish Tomas Lindahl, American Paul Modrich and Turkish-born Aziz Sancar have been chosen for the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discoveries in DNA repair, as per announcement made by the Nobel Committee. Their work uncovered the mechanisms used by cells to repair damaged DNA – a fundamental process in living cells.

Prof Lindahl has worked in the UK, Paul Modrich is professor of Biochemistry at Duke University in North Carolina and Turkish-born biochemist Aziz Sancar is professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, US.

5. Raif Badawi, the blogger from Saudi Arabia, was named the 2015 International Writer of Courage and the joint winner of the PEN Pinter Prize today along with British poet and literary critic James Fenton. He was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for his liberal writings.

Fenton officially accepted the 2015 PEN Pinter Prize While, due to Badawi’s imprisonment, his award was accepted by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and campaigner for Raif Badawi.

6. Russian Chess player Sergey Karjakin won 2015 World Cup Chess Championship held at Baku, Azerbaijan. He defeated Peter Svidler (Russia) by 6-4 score in the final match. He also holds the record for being world’s youngest Chess Grandmaster at the age young of 12 years and 7 months.

7. World Habitat Day was observed on 5th October across the world to raise awareness about the state of human settlements and the future of cities. As per United Nations, it is observed on first Monday of October every year. The theme for 2015 was “Public spaces for all”.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) through Resolution 40/202 had established World Habitat Day in 1985 and it was first celebrated in 1986 with the theme “Shelter is My Right”. The purpose of the day is to reflect on the state of our cities and towns and the basic human right to adequate shelter. It also aims to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the habitat of future generations.

8. Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada have jointly won the Nobel Prize 2015 in Physics for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, as per announcement made by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The two researchers had made key contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities.

As per the academy, “The discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the universe”. Kajita is director of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research and Professor at the University of Tokyo. McDonald is a Professor Emeritus at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.

9. Micro blogging site Twitter has appointed its co-founder and interim chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey as permanent CEO for second time. He succeeded Dick Costolo who had resigned in June this 2015 after serving as CEO for five years.

He had earlier served as Twitter’s president and CEO from May 2007 to October 2008. Post October 2008, he was also the Chairman of the board of members of Twitter. Twitter also has appointed Adam Bain as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company.

10. DuPont Chief Executive Officer Ellen Kullman has resigned and will step down this month. She will be replaced temporarily by board member Edward Breen, who oversaw the break-up of conglomerate Tyco International Plc. Kullman joined the company more than 27 years ago and has been its CEO since 2009.

11. India and Germany signed 18 MoUs during visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel today in various sectors including renewable energy, skill development, higher education, civil aviation, railways, food safety and promotion of German language in India and modern Indian languages in Germany. The MOUs were signed in presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

12. Indian PSU Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) established the world’s highest terrestrial centre at 17,600 feet above sea level at Changla near Pengong Lake in Ladakh. It will serve as a natural cold storage for preserving rare and endangered medical plants and will act as an important utility for research work in frontal areas of food and agriculture and bio-medical sciences for wellbeing of the soldiers deployed in high altitude cold desert.

13. Ashish Bahuguna, the Chairman of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), was given an additional charge of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FSSAI. He succeeded Yudhvir Singh Malik who was shifted to NITI Aayog as an Additional Secretary in September 2015. He will hold the position of CEO until a new appointment is made for the position.

14. India’s e-commerce giant, Flipkart has appointed Sriram Venkataraman as the new Chief Finance Officer (CFO) and Pramod Jain as Vice President and Head of Taxation. Sriram Venkataraman, in his new role, will watch over all aspects of the finance function for CP. He will also be responsible to drive the CP business to deliver its goals while Pramod Jain will lead the tax department with the aim of improving engagement with revenue and government authorities.

15. Shashank Manohar has been elected unopposed as President of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the second term during Special General Meeting (SGM) of BCCI. He succeeded Jagmohan Dalmiya who passed away recently after served as BCCI President for 7 months from March 2015. Earlier he had served as the 29th President of the BCCI from 2008 to 2011. He is known for his impeccable clean image and track record and integrity. With his new role, he promised to clean all spot fixing issues within BCCI.

16. Three scientists from Japan, China and Ireland jointly won the Nobel Prize for Medicine today. They worked on the development of potent new drugs against parasitic diseases such as malaria and elephantiasis. Irish-born William Campbell and Japanese Satoshi Omura won half of the prize for discovering avermectin, a derivative of which has been used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis. China’s Youyou Tu won the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has slashed malaria deaths and has become the mainstay of fighting the mosquito-borne disease.

17. American world number one Golf Player Jordan Spieth was named as the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year after winning two major victories among his five wins in 2014-15. He, aged 22, is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour, and world number one in the World Golf Ranking.

18. China won the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia Championship title by defeating Philippines team by 78-67 in the final match this weekend. With this, China secures direct qualification for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

19. New Delhi will host G20 summit in 2018 and India will chair the annual forum that year, as per the decision taken by G20 forum in September 2015 which was chaired by Turkey. Turkey will hand over the Chair to China for 2016 and Germany will chair the same summit in 2017. G20 is a forum where leaders of G20 nations meet and discuss about financial and economic cooperation.

20. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has launched Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification and Maintenance) Policy-2015 to promote greening of National Highway corridors across India. The key aim of the policy is to reduce the impact of air pollution and dust by planting trees and shrubs along the National Highways. The entire progress and plantation status will be monitored by the monitoring agency by conducting site visit on regular intervals.

21. V Shanmuganthan has sworn in as the 17th Governor of Manipur at a ceremony held at Raj Bhawan in Imphal. He succeeded Dr. Syed Ahmed who passed away last month. Currently He is Governor of Meghalaya and was given additional charge of Manipur by President Pranab Mukherjee after death of Dr. Syed Ahmed.

22. The city of Coventry honored leading Indian industrialist Ratan Tatawith its highest award Honorary Freeman Of city of Coventry at the University of Warwick, Coventry for his contributions to the West Midlands region of central England. Only 13 people have been conferred this award since 1914 including Indian –origin professor Kumar Bhattacharyya, founder of Warwick manufacturing group.

23. Famous Indian tennis player Sania Mirza along with Swiss partner Martina Hingis continued her superb run as they won their seventh title together by winning the Wuhan Open women’s doubles trophy this week. They defeated the Romanian team of Irina Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu by 6-2, 6-3 in the final match.

24. The International Day of Older Persons was observed on 1st October across the world which has also marked the 25th anniversary. The theme for year 2015 was “Sustainability and Age Inclusiveness in the Urban Environment”. The United Nations General Assembly declared 1st October to observe as International Day of Older Persons in December 1990.

25. Indian-American Karthik Chandran, currently working as associate professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia Engineering, won prestigious 2015 MacArthur Fellow with a “Genius Grant” for his work in transforming wastewater from pollutant into useful resources such as energy sources, fertilizers and commodity chemicals. The award carries cash reward of USD 625,000.

26. India has moved up 16 positions to rank 55th on a global index of the world’s most competitive economies, as per the latest Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) today. This is significant improvement compared to last year.

Switzerland has retained its top position as the world’s most competitive economy for seventh year in a row in the same report and it is followed by Singapore, the US, Germany and the Netherlands in the top-five. Other countries in top ten list are Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, Sweden and the UK.

27. Also India has received highest foreign direct investment (FDI) compared to China and United states in the first half of 2015 due to new initiatives taken by the Modi government, as per a report published in London’s Financial Times. As per the report India has attracted roughly USD 31 billion FDI compared to USD 28 billion by China and USD 27 billion by the USA.

This growth in FDI investment in India came after the government has relaxed FDI norms in various sectors including defence, railways, construction, insurance and medical devices. India is currently ranked 142nd among 189 nations in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2015 study.

28. The Central Government has appointed four brand ambassadors for its “Digital India programme”. They were appointed in the first week of July 2015 as part of the Digital India Week campaign. They are Satwat Jagwani and Krati Tiwari – both are students and All India IIT-JEE -Advanced Topper in 2015, famous author and ethical hacker Ankit Fadia and Pranav Mistry, working in Samsung USA as Computer Scientist and Author of 6th Sense.

29. India-Sri Lanka joint military exercise MITRA SHAKTI 2015 has started at Aundh Military Station in Pune, Maharashtra. This is the third edition of the joint training exercise between both countries which aims to build Military to Military co-operation and interoperability. Aim of MITRA SHAKTI 2015 Exercise is to share the best military practices between the two Armies and promote healthy military to military relations.

30. Indo-British van driver Dee Patel was awarded with the Pride of Britain Award by Prince Charles of Britain this week. He was given the award in the outstanding bravery category as he had risked his life to save others. The Pride of Britain Awards was founded by Peter Willis in 1999.

In May 2005, he noticed a car ahead of him that was dangerously out of control on the M25 motorway.  Soon, he realised that the driver of the car, a young woman, slumped unconscious over the steering wheel. Patel came for the rescue of the woman without wasting any time.

31. M.R. Poovamma and Babita Kumari have been awarded with the prestigious Arjuna Award 2015 for their individual achievements in sports. The award was presented to them by Union Minister of State (MoS) for Youth affairs and Sports Sarbananda Sonowal in New Delhi. M.R. Poovamma was awarded for her contributions in Athletics and Babita Kumari was awarded for her contribution in Wrestling.

32. Former world number one Heena Sidhu won the gold medal in women’s 10 metre air pistol event at the 8th Asian Air Gun Championships in New Delhi today. She shot a total of 197.8 to win the top prize in the final. Another Indian Shweta Singh came second and won silver medal with score of 197.0 while Korean shooter Seon A Kim won the bronze with a total score of 175.8.India won total 17 medals, including six gold to finish as toppers in the continental event followed by Iran at second position.

33. RBI cuts interest rate by 50 bps in surprise move today

In a surprise move, the Reserve Bank of India cut the repo rate, its short-term lending rate to banks, by 50 bps, to 6.75% with immediate effect today during its monetary policy review meet. At the same time it has cut reverse repo by 50 bps to 5.75% while kept the Cash Reserve Ratio unchanged at 4%. Marginal Standing Facility Rate and Bank Rate stood at 7.75% while Statutory Liquidity Ratio has been kept unchanged at 21.5%.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said inflation is expected to touch 5.8% in January 2016, which is lower compared to earlier August projection. RBI has cut its GDP growth forecast for current financial year to 7.4% compared to its earlier forecast of 7.6%. aSome major banks including SBI also followed RBI with cut in their lending rates which will make home and car loans cheaper for consumers. Also this rate cut should help to boost both economic and industrial growth.

34. India’s first dedicated astronomy research satellite Astrosat has been successfully launched by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C30 today morning from its launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The 1531 kilogram satellite has a planned lifespan of five years. With this launch, India has joined a select league of nations which have their own observatories in space.

Astrosat has the ability to observe various celestial objects in different wavelengths simultaneously, giving it an edge over its peers.

35. Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has formed a committee headed by B S Baswan to revisit the civil services examination pattern. The seven member committee was given responsibility to submit report within six months from the date of its constitution.

The committee will evaluate the effectiveness of the existing scheme of the civil services examination in selecting suitable candidates keeping in view various factors such as inclusiveness, fair mix of candidates from different disciplines, etc.

36. S K Sharma has been appointed as the Chairman of Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) with effect from 25th September 2015. He succeeded A B Agrawal, who was Chairman for a period of about five years. He joined Haryana irrigation and water resources department in 1980 as sub divisional officer and during working as Chief Engineer of Beas Satluj Link (BSL) project, he has been instrumental in successfully running of dredger and other allied works, besides running and maintenance of BSL Water Conductor System.

37. Saugata Gupta, Managing Director and CEO of FMCG Company Marico, has been elected as the Chairman of ISA (Indian Society of Advertisers) for the second consecutive year. He has FMCG experience of over two decades having worked in Cadbury (India & UK), ICICI Prudential and Marico.

38. Manipur Governor Dr Syed Ahmad passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He was 75. He was sworn in as the 16th Governor of Manipur in May 2015, before that he had served as the eighth Governor of Jharkhand from August 2011.

39. Beijing Olympics champion Abhinav Bindra won gold medal in the men’s 10 metre Air Rifle event of the Asian Air Gun Championships in New Delhi today. He shot 208.3 points to bag the gold medal after defeating Kazakhstan’s world number eight Yurkov Yuriy (206.6) and Korea’s Yu Jaechul (185.3) on today at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.

40. G-4 countries which are Brazil, Germany, India and Japan have issued a Joint Statement on United Nations Security Council Reforms (UNSC). It was issued after G-4 meeting held in New York, USA which was called by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe.

They unanimously supported the early reforms of the Security Council as an essential element of the overall effort to reform UN with regard to maintenance of international peace and security.

41. Famous Canadian Mathematician Dr. Jacob Tsimerman has been chosen for the prestigious 2015 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize. Currently he is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, Canada and his mathematics research work is primarily in the field of Number Theory and surrounding topics. He will be conferred with the prize during the International Conference on Number Theory to be held at SASTRA University in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu.

The award has been named after great Indian Mathematician autodidact Srinivasa Ramanujan and was established in 2005 by Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA) University.

42. The 193-Member United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) formally adopted the Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on 25th September 2015 along with a set of new Global Goals with a universal, integrated and transformative vision for a better world.

The 2030 Agenda and the Global Goals were adopted during the UN Sustainable Development Summit that is being held at the UN headquarters in New York. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an agenda for people to end poverty in all its forms. It is composed of 17 goals and 169 targets to wipe out poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change over the next 15 years.

43. German Car maker Volkswagen’s board has named Matthias Mueller, the head of the group’s Porsche unit, to be the new CEO of the company who will lead the car maker during its new growing emissions-rigging scandal. He will succeed previous CEO, Martin Winterkorn, who quit the job this week over the scandal.

44. Baseball legend Yogi Berraof the United States passed away this week. He was 90. He had played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball(MLB) from 1946 to 1963 and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.  He is one of the 5 players who won the American League Most Valuable Player Award for3 times

45. Leading Formula 1champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes team won the Japanese Grand Prix Formula one race held today. This is his eighth victory of this season. With this win, he equaled legendary racer Ayrton Senna’s tally of 41 victories.

His teammate Lewis Hamilton secured second place followed by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas of Williams-Mercedes. Force India continued with their impressive performance in the Japanese GP as Nico Hulkenberg was the sixth driver to cross the chequered flag who started the race in the 13th position.

46. Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) was awarded with the Skoch Award for Smart Governance at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 23rd September for its initiatives on UAN Programme and Transformation of Social Security Agenda in India. EPFO was also awarded two SKOCH Order-of-Merits, one for launching UAN for EPFO members and another for transformation of Social Security Agenda in India.

Skoch Smart Governance Award is an initiative recognizing top performing government organizations and organizations working with the government, operating at local, state and national level. The award is given in the area of Health, Education, Rural Development/Panchayati Raj, Urban Development, Finance, and Security.

46. Bajaj Auto launched its much-awaited RE60 quadricycle, named as ‘Qute’, at a free-on-board (FoB) price tag of USD 2,000. The vehicle is meant only for export markets for now, as the regulations for India are not yet in place because of an ongoing public interest litigation in the Supreme Court.

The vehicle will be shipped to 16 countries, including Turkey, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, Kenya, Peru and Ecuador, starting early next month and will start with around 100 units initially.

47. Switchgear products and fan maker Standard, a part of Havells India, has roped in Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt as its brand ambassador for its range of products. As a part of the deal, Alia would endorse Standard’s range of home and industrial switches and range of premium fans.

48. Top seeded Sania Mirza and her Women’s double partner Martina Hingis continued their unbeaten run as they won the Guangzhou Open title on 26th September after defeating Shilin Xu-Xiaodi You in the final match by 6-3, 6-1. With this win, Sania claimed her seventh title of the season.

49. India’s most successful cueist Pankaj Advani won the IBSF World Billiards Championship after defeating his opponent in the final to win the world title for 14th time. He defeated Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist by 1168 points.

50. The government has announced the recipients of prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award which is considered to be a coveted science honour in the country. The Ministry of Science and Technology announced 11 awards in seven different fields this year.

In Biological Science category, Balasubramanian Gopal of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and Rajeev Kumar Varshney of International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) were chosen for the award. Jyotiranjan Srichandan Ray from the Physical Science Laboratory, Ahmedabad was chosen from the field of Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences while Yogesh Joshi from IIT Kanpur was selected for the awards in the field of Engineering Sciences. In the field of Mathematical Sciences, Ritabrata Munshi from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai and K Sandeep from TIFR Centre for Applicable Mathematics, Bangalore were chosen for the award. Vidita Vaidya from the TIFR Mumbai bagged the award from the medical science category.

In the Physical Sciences category, Bedangadas Mohanty from the National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneshwar and Mandar Deshmukh from the TIFR Mumbai were selected. D Srinivasa Reddy from CSIR’s National Chemical Laboratory, Pune and Pradyut Ghosh form the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur were selected for the award in the category of Chemical Sciences.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award is named after the founder Director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the late Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. The prize is given each year for outstanding contributions to science and technology.

51. Union Government has approved for implementation of Integrated Air Command & Control System (IACCS) project of Indian Air force (IAF) and allocated Rs 8,000-crore for the same. IACCS system is an automated command and control system for Air Defence (AD) which integrates different air sensors and radars to protect Indian airspace. Currently, India has 5 IACCS nodes. The addition of four more nodes will help IAF to cover isolated islands thereby providing a security umbrella to the entire country.

52. Arvind Panagariya, vice-chairman of Niti Aayog, has been appointed as the sherpa for G20 negotiations. A sherpa represents the government or the Prime Minister at Group of 20 countries meetings and helps articulate the official position on critical issues. Panagariya will replace railway minister Suresh Prabhu, who has been the sherpa for G20 talks.

53. Telenor Group changed its brand identity along with legal company name from its Indian part name Uninor to Telenor India Communications Pvt. Ltd. Headquarterd in Oslo, Norway, Telenor group currently has mobile operations in 13 market with total 189 million mobile customers.

54. Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has retained the tag as India’s richest for the ninth consecutive years with a net worth of USD 18.9 billion as per Forbes magazine’s latest Indian richest list. Mukesh Ambani was followed by Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi as second place with a net worth of USD 18 billion and Wipro’s Azim Premji at third place with USD 15.9 billion.

In the top 10, Hinduja brothers were ranked 4th with USD 15.9 billion, followed by Pallonji Mistry at USD 14.7 billion, Shiv Nadar (USD 12.9 billion), Godrej family (USD 11.4 billion), Lakshmi Mittal (USD 11.2 billion), Cyrus Poonawala (USD 7.9 billion) and Kumar Mangalam Birla (USD 7.8 billion). Flipkart’s founders and low-cost airline IndiGo’s co-founder Rakesh Gangwal, who has featured in the list for the first time at 70th position with a net worth of USD 1.6 billion ahead of his company’s IPO.

55. Former Indian Cricket captain Sourav Ganguly has been appointed as the next President of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), as per athe announcement made by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The post fallen vacant following recent death of Jagmohan Dalmiya. Ganguly was the Joint-secretary of the CAB at present and the son of former president Avishek Dalmiya will replace him.

56. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has approved a multi-billion dollar deal to purchase Military helicopters from United States aviation giant Boeing under which India will purchase 22 Apache Attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift choppers from Boeing. This deal is significant step just before PM Narendra Modi’s visit to USA this month.

57. The Union Cabinet has also approved setting up of Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC). It will be set up as a Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and initially will be located at the Institute for Physically Handicapped, New Delhi.

It will be established under the aegis of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities which comes under Union Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment. The aim will be to provide equal opportunities to hearing impaired persons to fully participate in every sphere of life.

58. Marathi film ‘Court’ was selected as India’s official entry for the Oscars which will now represent the country in the Best Foreign Film category at the Academy Awards. The winner will be announced in February. This is a movie by debutant director Chaitanya Tamhane which was made with a budget of only 3.5 crore Rupees.

59. Famous Hindi writer Dr Kamal Kishore Goenka was conferred with 24th Vyaas Samman for the year 2014 yesterday for his work ‘Premchand ki Kahaniyon ka Kaal Kramanusaar Adhyayan’. The aware includes a citation along with a cash amount of 2.5 lakh rupees. The award was instituted by the KK Birla Foundation in 1991 and Ii is awarded to an outstanding literary work in Hindi published during the last 10 years.

60. Hindustan Times Group chairperson Shobhana Bharatia and PepsiCo Chairman Indra Nooyi have been awarded 2015 Global Leadership Award of the US-India Business Council (USIBC) for their roles as top women leaders in the Business world. Famous Indian-American artist Natvar Bhavsar was awarded the Artistic Achievement Award for his abstract expressionism and colour-field painting. All of them were presented the awards during the annual gala of the USIBC.

61. Vikram Pawah was appointed as the Managing Director of India operations of US bike maker Harley Davidson with immediate effect. Pawah succeeded Anoop Prakash, who was appointed as the Managing Director of Harley Davidson Canada. Post this change, Pawah will manage Harley Davidson India’s leadership team responsible for sales, dealer network management, marketing, service and operations activities within India.

62. Zayn Khan was unanimously elected as the President of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI). His succeeded R Bharath Raj, who passed away while serving as President on 15th August this year.

FMSCI was formed in the year 1971 as a federation of five clubs to promote motorsporting events in the country. It is a Private Limited company registered under Section 25 of the Indian Companies Act 1956.

63. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ new left-wing government took office with painful economic reforms and a growing migration crisis in the country. Immediately after sworn in, he had to fly to Brussels for an emergency migration summit.

64. Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned today taking responsibility for the German carmaker’s rigging of US emissions tests in the biggest scandal in its 78-year history. The company now faces nearly USD 11 billion fine in the United States for its rigging scandal which also threatens its global brand value.

US authorities are planning criminal investigations after discovering that Volkswagen programmed computers in its cars to detect when they were being tested and alter the running of their diesel engines to conceal their true emissions. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had urged Volkswagen to move quickly to restore confidence in a company.

65. Cow was declared as the National Animal of Nepal as per the new constitution of Nepal unveiled by President Ram Baran Yadav recently. Cow is considered as a sacred animal to Hindus and Nepal is a Hindu country. With this new act, the animal has constitutional protection and cow slaughter has also been banned in the country

CURRENT AFFAIRS 13^th SEPTEMBER – 21^st SEPTEMBER

1. The Election Commission (EC) has introduced a symbol for “None of the Above (NOTA)” option to facilitate voters in exercising their NOTA option in elections. The NOTA option was made available to the voters with effect from 11th October, 2013, as per order from the Supreme Court issued on 27th September, 2013.

The symbol for NOTA option was designed by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. The main objective of the NOTA option is to enable electors, who do not wish to vote for any of the candidates, to exercise their right without violation of the secrecy of their decision

2. India’s broadband penetration ranking dropped to 155 in 2014 compared to 113th rank in the previous year 2013, as per the State of Broadband 2015 report by the United Nations published today. This despite the fact that the number of people with broadband access on mobile phones has gone up to 5.5% of the population compared with just 3.2% in 2013. As per the report, 57% of the world’s people remain offline and unable to take advantage of Internet.

India’s overall broadband penetration (mobile and fixed line) ranking improved to 136 in 2014 compared to 142 in 2013 but is still way behind countries such as Syria, Zimbabwe and Ghana.

3. Famous Urdu litterateur Shamim Hanfi won the inaugural Jnangarima Manad Alankaran award of Bharatiya Jnanpith. Jnangarima Manad Alankaran award was established in 2015 by Bharatiya Jnanpith to mark 70 years of the institution to recognize the contribution of writers in Indian languages. It consists of a Saraswati statue, a silver citation, a shawl and a stipend of Rs. 11,000 per month.

4. Jagmohan Dalmiya, the president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), passed away at a city hospital in Kolkata on 20th September after a massive cardiac arrest. He was 75. He has not been keeping well for a while now and was not actively taking part in the day-to-day functioning of the BCCI. As a notable cricket administrator, he is known to make BCCI the wealthiest and most powerful cricketing body in the world.

5. Famous Malayalam playback singer Radhika Thilak passed away in Kochi on 20th September 2015 due to cancer. She was 45.She was a known face on Doordarshan in the 1990s and one of the top-rated singers on All India Radio and one of the most popular stage singers of the time.

6. India’s Ajay Jayaram won silver medal in 2015 Korea Open Badminton tournament in the Men’s singles category after being defeated by World no. one Cheng Long of China by 14-21, 12-21 in the final match. With this win, Ajay Jayaram became first Indian badminton player to win a medal in Korea Open Badminton tournament.

7. The International Day of Peace was observed on today (21st September) across the world to raise importance of peace and recognize the efforts of those who have worked hard to prmote the same. The theme of International Day of Peace for the year 2015 is “Partnerships for Peace- Dignity for All”.

The United Nations General Assembly has devoted this day to strengthen the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.

8. Nepal has adopted new Constitution on 20th September which marks the country’s transition to a secular and democratic republic. The new Constitution was unveiled by Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav at a special ceremony held in Parliament at Kathmandu. Before the Parliament had unanimously adopted the new Constitution by a 507-25 votes in the 601 seat Constituent Assembly (CA) after seven years of deliberations. The new Constitution has been drafted by second Constituent Assembly (CA) headed by Subash Nemwang which was elected in 2013.

9. Alexis Tsipras’ left-wing Syriza party is expected to win the recently held election in Greece instead of its acceptance of a painful third international bailout.It may not get absolute majority in the 300-member parliament but expected to form a coalition government with ease.It is projected to get 145 seats while Conservative New Democracy is projected to get 75 seats while Golden Dawn is projected to get 18 seats.

10. Ferrari’s formula one driver Sebastian Vettel won 2015 Singapore Grand Prix held in Singapore on 20th September. It was overall fourth victory for Vettel in Singapore Grand Prix after winning the same in 2011, 2012 and 2013. This was also his third victory of the season 2015.

11. Union Government has launched the Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY) for the welfare of people affected by mining related operations which aims to provide help to the people affected by mining related operations by using the funds collected by District Mineral Foundations (DMFs). Another aim is to mitigate the adverse impacts due to mining operation on the health and environment.

12. The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has increased the life insurance cover of its subscribers from current Rs 3.6 lakh to Rs 6 lakh which will benefit around 40 million members of EPFO. The central board of trustees (CBT), the highest decision-making body of the EPFO, also decided that the subscriber will not be required to serve continuous employment of one year in a company before being eligible for insurance benefit.

13. Metro Man Elattuvalapil Sreedharan has been invited to the United Nations’ High Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport (HLAG-ST) by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for a period of 3 years. Considered as Metro Man, he was the project owner of Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro projects were completed on time.

He was awarded with Padma Shri in 2001 and Padma Vihushanb in 2008 by Indian Government and Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur in 2005 by the French Government.

14. Veteran cricket Marathi commentator Bal Pandit passed away in Pune. He was 89. He is considered as pioneer of cricket commentary in Marathi who had made the game more popular in Marathi households. He was famous for his lucid live commentary of both domestic and international matches on All India Radio (AIR) for over four decades. He was also a prolific cricket writer and had written about 30 books.

15. Indian Cricketer Ajinkya Rahane has been conferred with the honorary life membership by the Cricket Club of India (CCI) on 18th September. With this award, he joins a famous list of sportspersons, including Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Geet Sethi, Michael Ferreira, Muttiah Muralitharan and MS Dhoni etc.

16. The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved to provide an additional 50 days of unskilled manual work in the financial year over and above the 100 days assured to job card holders, in such rural areas where drought or natural calamities have been notified. This will enable States to provide additional wage employment to the rural poor in drought affected areas. The poorest rural households will benefit from this, as it will help in immediate absorption of rural seasonal unemployment, and reduce rural distress.

17. India’s export growth dropped by 20.66% in August to USD 21.26 billion, which is a drop for the ninth consecutive months. The drop was mainly due to weak global demand amid slower economic growth in developed economies. Total imports dropped by 9.95% in the same month to USD 33.74 billion due to steep decrease in oil prices.

The trade deficit stood at USD 12.47 billion compared with USD 10.66 billion in the same month last year. Exports during April-August period of financial year 2015-16 stood at USD 111.09 billion, 16.7% lower than the comparable period last year. Imports during the same period dropped by 11.61% to USD 168.61 billion. Trade deficit during the same period stood at USD 57.51 billion.

18. Railways shot putter Manpreet Kaur became the latest Indian athlete to qualify for next year’s Olympics when she broke an 18-year-old national record to win sixth title at the 55th National Open Athletics Championship today. She threw 17.96 metres in her second attempt to claim the gold medal.

19. Rajasthan Assembly passes 3 Important bills.  On Monday The Rajasthan Assembly pass three Important bills  Prisons (Amendment) Bill, Rajasthan Police (Amendment) Bill and Rajasthan Vexatious Litigation (Prevention) Bill.

Rajasthan Vexatious Litigation (Prevention) Bill :-

Rajasthan Assembly passed the Rajasthan Vexation Litigation Prevention Bill, 2015 by  voice vote. The objective of the bill is to prevent filing of baseless cases and to check the misuse of law for personal benefits.

It covers both civil and criminal cases in the high court and subordinate courts. With this Rajasthan became the fifth state in India after Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and Madhya Pradesh to pass such legislation.

What is Vexatious Litigation ?

Vexatious litigation is legal action which is brought, regardless of its merits, solely to harass or subdue an adversary. It may take the form of a primary frivolous lawsuit or may be the repetitive, burdensome, and unwarranted filing of meritless motions in a matter which is otherwise a meritorious cause of action. Filing vexatious litigation is considered an abuse of the judicial process and may result in sanctions against the offender.

Prisons (Amendment) Bill, 2015:-

The Prison (Amendment) Bill is aimed at improving the efficiency of prisons and checking violence and gang wars. Prison bill provides for stricter arrangements when a prisoner is taken to court. Prisoners on parole who do not present themselves in front of the designated officers will face additional punishment.

Rajasthan Police (Amendment) Bill, 2015:-

Rajasthan Police (Amendment) Bill provides for a fine of Rs 500 for anyone who creates a nuisance on the road and obstructs or injures a person or property. For the second incidence, the fine will be Rs 5,000 and for the third incidence Rs 10,000 and eight days’ jail.

20. China launches new, smaller type of carrier rocket.

On Sunday China successfully launched a new, smaller type of rocket from its "Long March" family as part of the country’s space program. It was launched from the base in the Northern Province of Shanxi and was carrying 20 micro satellites into the space

The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, who designed the rocket alongside the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, claim that it is China's first carrier rocket that uses fuel free of toxicity and pollution due to its liquid oxygen and kerosene propellant.

21. Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa inaugurates butterfly park. The park has been constructed at an estimated cost of 4 crore Rupees over 6.7 acres of land at the Arignar Anna Zoological Park at suburban Vandalur.

It has a slew of features, including 200 species of plants and trees, and will have a conducive atmosphere for the butterflies

22. The Bank of Baroda has been conferred the first prize under the All India Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar Scheme of Government of India.The bank has bagged several prizes of all India level for official language implementation earlier also.

The bank received the award from President Pranab Mukherjee during a function held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on the occasion of Hindi Diwas. Ranjan Dhawan, managing director and chief executive officer of the bank received the award

23. The US Federal Reservehas kept interest rates unchanged today during monetary policy review meet amid concerns about a weak world economy. It has also kept the possibility of a rate hike later this year. Investors and Economists around the world were expecting a rate hike by the Fed this time after keeping the interest rate at record low level since financial crisis in 2008.

24. Nepal’s parliament has approved a new constitution with full majority with effect from 20th September. It was passed by 507 votes in favor compared to 25 votes in against. It comes after years of political crisir, while Nepal was governed by an interim constitution after the monarchy was abolished in 2008.

25. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been announced as one of the winners of the United Nations Champions of the Earth award in recognition of initiatives taken by Bangladesh to address climate change.

The award cites, among other initiatives, the progressive Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan of 2009, which made the South Asian nation the first developing country to frame such a coordinated action plan. Bangladesh is also the first country to set up its own Climate Change Trust Fund, supported by nearly USD 300 million of domestic resources from 2009-2012.

26. A 15-year-old Indian-American girl Swetha Prabakaran has been selected for the prestigious Champions of Change award by the White House for her efforts for empowering the community by imparting education of Internet coding through her non-profit Organisation. She is among eleven young women selected by the White House as Champions of Change.

27. City Hangzhou in China will host the 2022 Asian Games, as confirmed by the Olympic Council of Asia at its General Assembly in Ashgabat yesterday. The capital of China’s Zhejiang province, Hangzhou, was the sole bidder to stage the 19th edition of Asian Games. China hosted the Asian Games twice before, Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.

28. The Union Cabinet has approved a Scheme to boost social, economic and infrastructure development in rural areas. The government has earmarked over Rs 5,000 crore for the Scheme named as Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission, SPMRM.

The Cabinet committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) also approved setting up of committee to propose Exim bank scheme to offer concessional finance to companies bidding for infra projects abroad. The CCEA has also approved doubling of 284 kilometres Hotgi-Kudgi-Gadag Railway line costing Rs 2,058 crore.

29. Bollywood actor Anupam Kher received the ‘Certificate of Recognition’ from the California legislature for his dedication to helping Kashmiri Hindu community. Anupam Kher is also a Kashmiri Hindu himself. The certificate added to the list of honours Kher has received in the US.

30. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted in-principle approval to 10 applicants to set up small finance banks in order to achieve financial inclusion and to bring the weaker sections of the society under formal banking.

The applicants selected for setting up small finance banks include Au Financiers Ltd, Capital Local Area Bank, Disha Microfin, Equitas Holdings, Ujjivan Financial Services, Utkarsh Micro Finance, ESAF Microfinance and Investments, Janalakshmi Financial Services, RGVN Microfinance and Suryoday Micro Finance.

31. Indian pharma giant Sun Pharma announced its acquisition of US-based eye-care company InSite Vision Inc. Sun Pharma will be USD 0.35 per share which will make the deal worth of USD 48 million. InSite, which develops specialty ophthalmic products, has three late stage programmes in its product pipeline.

32. India’s two institutes, IISC Bangalore and IIT Delhi has been ranked in the list of top 200 universities in the world as per the QS World University Rankings for the first time. New entrant IISc Bangalore is ranked 147th, while IIT Delhi has climbed is ranked 179th in this list.

The top two ranks were retained by MIT and Harvard University. The QS Rankings are based on six indicators, with varied weightage given to each one: Academic reputation (40 per cent); employer reputation (10 per cent); student-to-faculty ratio (20 per cent); citations per faculty (20 per cent); international faculty ratio (5 per cent); and international student ratio (5 per cent).

33. Gujarat has been ranked as the topmost industry friendly state in the World Bank’s first ever ranking of states published on the ease of conducting business in India. All the states were evaluated based on the execution of a 98-point reforms agenda over a six-month period – from January to June. Gujarat is followed by Andhra Pradesh at second position and Jharkhand at third position.

34. Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister Dr G Satheesh Reddy was awarded with the Royal Aeronautical Society’s (RAeS) prestigious silver medal in London, UK this month for his contributions to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as one of the leading navigation and avionics experts. Dr. Reddy is the only Indian Defence Scientist to have received this award.

35. Reserve Bank has cancelled the certificate of registration of the Sahara India Financial Corporation as Non-bank financial company, NBFC with effect from 3rd September. Post this, the company cannot transact business as a NBFC. Earlier, markets regulator SEBI had cancelled mutual fund and portfolio management licenses of other firms of the group.

36. India’s goal of becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council took a significant step forward today when The UN General Assembly adopted a negotiating text by consensus for the long-pending Security Council reforms amid protests from China, Russia and Pakistan.

UN General Assembly President Sam Kutesa convened a plenary meeting to take action on the draft decision on the “Question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and related matters”. India welcomed the decision, saying, “We look forward to early commencement of text-based negotiations with a view to securing concrete outcomes during the 70th session of the UNGA. We call upon all member states to constructively engage in this process so that the long pending reform of the UN Security Council can be achieved.”

37. Hindi Divasor Hindi Daywas observed on 14th September 2015 across India to promote the language and show its importance of Hindi as a language. President Pranab Mukherjee presented the Rajbhasha awards for various categories at a function held in Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi today.

38. Prabhat Kumar Singh took over as the new Managing Director and CEO of Petronet LNG Ltd, India’s biggest liquefied natural gas importer. Earlier, he was the Director of Marketing at state gas utility GAIL India Ltd before his appointment at Petronet. He replaced A K Balyan, who had completed his five-year term on 15th July.

39. Hormusji N Cama was unanimously elected as the new chairman of the Press Trust of India (PTI) today. He is the Managing Director of Bombay Smachar, which is the oldest continuously-published newspaper in India from 1855. He succeeded Mohan Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of the Jagran Prakashan Limited (JPL).

40. CEO of India’s two largest banks, Chanda Kochhar and Arundhati Bhattacharya have been ranked as top two in a list of most powerful women in Asia-Pacific published by the global business magazine Fortune. Chanda Kochhar, CEO of ICICI Bank, secured the first place followed by Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO and MD of State Bank of India.

Nishi Vasudeva, Chairman and MD of State-run oil marketing company Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, secured fifth rank while Shikha Sharma, CEO of Axis Bank, secured ninth spot in the list.

41. Famous Classical dancer, Kalamandalam Sathyabhama passed away in Palakkad district of Kerala. She was 77. She was considered as a matriarch of Mohiniyattam and was well-known for her experimental reforms in this classical dance form which helped to preserve and popularise the traditional art form. She was awarded with the Padma Shri award by Indian government in 2014 and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardin 1994.

42. 1. Australia will get its fifth prime minister in eight years after the ruling Liberal Party voted out Tony Abbott in favour of long-time rival Malcolm Turnbull today. Malcolm Turnbull won a secret party vote by 54 to 44 to become the next Prime Minister of Australia.

43. Top seeded Novak Djokovic won his third Grand Slam title of 2015 and 10th career Grand Slam when he defeated Roger Federer by a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the US Open final of Men’s singles title. The defeat shattered 34-year-old Federer’s bid to become the oldest US Open champion in 45 years.

44. Union Minister of Human resource development Smriti Irani launched the national web portal for promotion of a national apprenticeship scheme this week. The scheme was launched to provide opportunities for practical training, is for graduates, diploma holders and 10+2 pass vocational certificate holders.

The portal would also offer security for women at workplace and ensure grievance redressal for the apprentice. It will also be a multilingual platform which currently engages with the user in Marathi, Bengali, Tamil and Hindi.

45. Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved to constitute the 21st Law Commission of India (LCI) which will have a period of 3 years with effect from 1st September 2015 to 31st August 2018. It will undertake research in existing laws by reviewing them for making reforms therein and enacting new legislations.

46. Union Cabinet has cleared National Offshore Wind Energy Policy to generate electricity from offshore windmills located in areas within Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) this week. Offshore wind power projects and R&D activities will be carried in waters up to the seaward distance of 200 Nautical Miles (EEZ of the country) from the base line. Union Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) will be nodal Ministry. National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) will be nodal agency for allocation of offshore Wind Energy blocks.

47. The road transport and highways ministry has said that it would add nearly 50,000 km of roads to the National Highways (NH) network within India in the next six months. This addition within two years of the Narendra Modi government will be more than twice the length NDA-I had added in its six years and over three times of what UPA added in its 10-year rule.

48. Shashidhar Sinha, the CEO of IPG Mediabrands India, has been elected as chairman of ABC during the 67th Annual General meeting for the year 2015-16. He also chairs the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) and is actively involved in other industry bodies including Advertising Standards Council of India, Media Research Users Council, and Ad Club.

At the same time, L. Venkat of EENADU has been elected as Deputy Chairman of ABC and Madhan Kumar of Mudra Communications has been elected as Treasurer of ABC.

49. G Satheesh Reddy, Scientific Adviser to Raksha Mantri, has been awarded with the Silver Medal of Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), London. With this, he has become the first defence scientist working in India to be honoured with the award by the Society. Reddy is also Director of the Research Centre Imarat, Hyderabad and a distinguished scientist with the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

The RAeS is the world’s only professional body dedicated to the entire aerospace community. Established in 1866 to further the art, science and engineering of aeronautics, the Society has been at the forefront of aerospace.

50. Rakesh Sharma was appointed as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PSU Bank Canara Bank. Before this appointment he was the MD and CEO of Lakshmi Vilas Bank.

51. Famous water policy expert Ramaswamy R. Iyer passed away in New Delhi after a brief illness due to viral fever. He was 86. He was He was best known for producing a rich body of commentary on water policy and environmental issues and played a key role in drafting India’s first National Water Policy in 1987.

52. India’s current account deficit dropped to 1.2% of GDP in the first quarter of the current financial year compared with 1.6% in the same period last year due to decline in merchandise imports. The reduction in the CAD was also enabled by higher net earnings through services exports and lower outflow on account of primary income (profit, dividend and interest), as per RBI data on balance of payments

In absolute terms, the CAD stood at USD 6.2 billion in the April-June quarter, compared with USD 7.8 billion in the same quarter last year.

53. JK Tyre & Industries (JK Tyre) and JK Asia Pacific Singapore Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of JK Tyre signed an agreement with Kesoram Industries Ltd (KIL) to acquire 100% equity in Cavendish Industries Ltd (CIL) For Rs 2,200 crore. CIL has a tyre factory located at Haridwar which manufactures a range of tyres, tubes and flaps.

54. India’sLeander Paes and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis won the US Open mixed doubles title after defeating Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sam Querrey 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 in the final match. This is 17th Grand Slam title for Leander Paes. With this victory, they became the first team since 1969 to win three Grand Slam mixed doubles titles in the same season at the US Open.

55. India’s Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Martina Hingis defeated Aussie-Kazakh team of Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova by 6-3, 6-3 in the Final to win the Doubles title at the US Open today. This is their second Grand Slam title this season after winning doubles title at the Wimbledon earlier this year.

56. Singapore’s ruling party won the recently held election and came back to power again with reelection of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The PAP (People’s Action Party) got 83 of the 89 seats in Parliament while the opposition Workers’ Party captured only 6 seats. The PAP has won 69.86% of the votes cast, as per the Elections Department.

57. Jeremy Corbyn has been elected leader of the British Labour party in an excellent first round victory. He won nearly 59.5% of first-preference votes, defeating his rivals Andy Burnham, who trailed on 19%, and Yvette Cooper who received 17%.

58. The post service in Sacramento has appointed Indian American Jagdeep Grewal as its new postmaster. With this the Sacramento post service has got a female postmaster after nearly 166 years. The U.S. Postal Service said that Grewal will oversee 1,004 employees who process and deliver mail on 537 city routes and 94 rural routes and fill nearly 20,000 post office boxes.

59. PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has been ranked as the only Indian-origin executive in Fortune’s list of 50 most powerful women in business which was released by the Fortune Magazine today. She was ranked at 2nd position in the list.

The list has been topped by General Motors CEO Mary Barra followed by Indra Noyii, Ginni Rometty (CEO of IBM), Marillyn Hewson (CEO, Chairman and President of Lockheed Martin), Ellen Kullman (CEO and Chairman of DuPont), Abigail Johnson (CEO and President of Fidelity Investments), Meg Whitman (CEO, Chairman and President of Hewlett-Packard (HP)), Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook), Irene Rosenfeld (CEO and Chairman of Mondelez International) and Phebe Novakovic (CEO and Chairman of General Dynamics).

60. Italy’s Flavia Pennetta won the Women’s Singles trophy of the US Open after defeating compatriot Roberta Vinci in straight sets, 7-6, 6-2 in the final match. With this she not only won her first Grand Slam title but also become the first Italian to open US Open Grand Slam.

The French team of Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert won the Men’s Doubles 

title at the US Open last night.

CURRENT AFFAIRS 9^th SEPTEMBER –  12^th SEPTEMBER

1. The Union Cabinet has approved Gold Monetization Schemes that were first announced by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his 2015-16 budget speech earlier this year. Under this initiative, revamped Gold Deposit Scheme (GDS) and the Gold Metal Loan (GML) Scheme will be implemented. These revamped schemes are in addition to the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme as approved by the Cabinet.

The main objective of these schemes are to mobilize the gold held by households and institutions in the country and to provide a fillip to the gems and jewellery sector in the country by making gold available as raw material on loan from banks.

2. The Union Cabinet has also approved for the Sovereign Gold Bonds Scheme in order to reduce the demand for physical gold and to shift part of the estimated 300 tons of physical bars and coins purchased every year for investment into Demat (Dematerialised) gold bonds. It was first announced by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s 2015-16 budget speech.

He announced three major initiatives viz., Gold Monetisation Scheme, Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme and Indian Gold Coin to curb demand for physical gold during his budget speech earlier this year.

3. The Union Cabinet has allowed 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) under the automatic route for white label ATM operations (WLAO). This is expected to boost FDI inflows in WLAO further giving a fillip to the government’s ambitious effort to promote financial inclusion in the country, including the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY).

4. US President Barack Obama will honour Indian-American Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri with the prestigious National Humanities Medal in recognition of her enlarging the human story. The White House said in her works of fiction, Dr Lahiri has illuminated the Indian-American experience.

5. Famous Indian Golfer Anirban Lahiri has become the first Indian to qualify for the prestigious President’s Cup of Golf.  He was qualified to this prestigious cup through automatic qualifications as team member of the International Team which is set to take on United States team in the biennial Presidents Cup 2015 to be held at Incheon, South Korea. He was awarded with Arjuna Award by Indian Government in 2015.

6. United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning Monarch of Britain and the longest-reigning female monarch in history on 9th September when she surpassed the previous record held by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria who had resigned dynastical institution of Britain for more than 63 years and 7 months. Also Queen Elizabeth II (88 years old) is now world’s oldest living monarch.

She acceded to the throne on 6 February 1952 at the age of 25 after her father, King George VI passed away and she was crowned as queen of Britain and other realms, including Canada and Australia on 2 June, 1953.

7. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered immediate adoption of Urdu as official language of the country which will make Government offices in Pakistan to use Urdu as an official language. The order was passed by a three member bench headed by Chief Justice Jawwad S Khawaja when hearing a petition filed by Advocate Kokab Iqbal for promotion and implementation of the national language.

8. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley launched the e-version of the 100 volumes of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG) in New Delhi. The works of Mahatma Gandhi compiled by a team of Scholars includes historic speeches of Gandhi, logical profiles of Gandhi’s life and thought, action and engagements. The CWMG project started on September 1956and ended on 2ndOctober 1994 with the publication of the 1000th volume.

9. Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has directed banks and depositories to defreeze the bank and securities accounts of Gemini Communications after it recovered pending dues of over Rs 11 lakh.

As per the press release, SEBI has recovered Rs 11,30,534 from the company towards full and final settlement of dues which included interests, all costs, charges and expenses.

10. Seven Indians were feature in Forbes Asia’s ninth Heroes of Philanthropy list published today. The list includes four co-founders of Infosys which include Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani and S D Shibulal and N R Narayana Murthy’s son Rohan for donating USD 5.2 million to Harvard University Press for promoting ancient Indian literary classics.

Other Indians in the list are Kerala-born entrepreneur Sunny Varkey, who pledged about half of his USD 2.25 billion dollar fortune to charity as part of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet-led Giving Pledge initiative, Dubai-based Varkey is the founder of GEMS Education and brothers Suresh Ramakrishnan and Mahesh Ramakrishnan, both London-based entrepreneurs and founders of Whitcomb & Shaftesbury Tailors on London’s Saville Row.

11. Renowned agricultural expert Professor Ramesh Chand has been appointed as new member of Niti Aayog. He has been working as Director of National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NIAP) in New Delhi since 2010. He is also a member of a task force on agriculture development under Niti Aayog.

12. J Manjula, has been appointed the new Director General (DG – Electronics & Communications Systems or ECS) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). With this, DRDO will have a woman scientist heading an important cluster with the high rank of a Director General for the first time. She will be one of the seven DG’s, who are heading different clusters within the DRDO.

13. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled the license of Sahara India Financial Corporation Limited (SIFCL) due to several irregularities and ignoring financial rules and regulations by Sahara. The action has been taken by the department of non-banking supervision of the RBI. The RBI had earlier barred the company in 2008 from taking any deposits from the people under its chit fund operations.

14. Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) has announced that it would transfer of its bread and bakery business under the ‘Modern’ brand to Nimman Foods Pvt Ltd, an investee company of the Everstone Group. This deal is subjected to necessary regulatory approvals.

HUL’s bread and bakery business consists of a full range of white and sweet breads, health and wellness breads and value-added bakery products such as cakes, muffins, buns, pavs, cream rolls under the Modern brand name.

15. Global credit rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service has projected India’s GDP growth at 7% for the current financial year 2015-16 due to slower recovery in industrial output. It has also reduced growth projections for other Asian countries.

At the same time, Swiss brokerage UBS has downgraded India’s GDP growth projection for the current financial year to 7.1% compared to earlier GDP growth forecast of 7.5%. It has projected GDP growth rate for next financial year to 7.6% from earlier forecast of 8.3%.

16. Indian Weightlifter Deepak Latherwon gold medal in the 62kg category in the 5th Youth Commonwealth Games (CYG). This was India’s second gold in weightlifting after Jamjang Deru won the yellow medal in the 56 kg category on the opening day of the event.

17. Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval to National Offshore Wind Energy Policy which would provide the roadmap for development of such plants in the country. India is already among the world’s top producers of electricity from windmills on land, with a capacity of more than 23,000 mw.(Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Minister – Piyush Goyal)

18. The Union Cabinet approved constitution of the 21st Law Commission of India for a period of three years from September 1, 2015 to August 31, 2018.

The Law Commission will consist of

Full-time chairperson.

4 full-time members including a member-secretary, a secretary for Department of Legal Affairs, a secretary for Legislative Department.

Part-time members (not exceeding five)

19. An Indian-origin entrepreneur Payal Kadakia, CEO and co-founder of ClassPass has been named among the most promising businesswomen of 2015 by Fortune magazine in its annual recognition of 10 women innovators, groundbreakers and game changers.

ClassPass is an American fitness startup company based in New York City and founded by Payal Kadakia and Mary Biggins. A two-year-old start-up that gives customers access to thousands of boutique fitness classes in their area.

20. President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Gandhi Peace Prize 2014 to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in recognition of its services in transforming India through the use of space technology and space based services at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar received the honour which carries Rs one crore in cash, a plaque and a citation.

21. 60 years old veteran actor Anupam Kher has been presented with the “Honoured Guest” award by the U.S. state of Texas for his contribution to cinema and art. The award was conferred on 60-year old thespian at the hands of Hueston Dy Mayor Ed Gonzalez on behalf of Texas State Governor Greg Abbot.

Performances by Anupam Kher and Neena Gupta in play Mera Matalab Vo Nahi Tha (My intention was not that) gathered immense popularity in Hueston and 15 other cities of America.

The actor was earlier appointed a UN ambassador for the ‘He for She’ campaign for gender equality. The campaign has been initiated by UN Women.

22. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the three-day (10th–12th September) 10th Vishwa Hindi Sammelan (World Hindi Conference) at Lal Parade Ground, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

Theme – “Hindi Jagat: Vistar evam Sambhavnai” (World of Hindi: Expansion and Scope).

Aim – World Hindi conferences aim at universal recognition of Hindi as a language of not only literature but also a language that is capable of adapting itself to modern science and technology.

Conference is organised by Ministry of External Affairs in cooperation with the Madhya Pradesh government. Amitabh Bachchan, the brand ambassador of Gujarat, will arrive at concluding ceremony.

23. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has released a new survey based report called The Inclusive Growth and Development Report 2015, this September. It is an effort of the forum to provide an actionable “inclusive growth” policy framework for the nations worldwide, which are struggling to come up with a policy which could solve this issue of inclusive growth. The report says that the current inclusive growth debates are very narrow based. This report is an attempt to deepen and broaden the issue of inclusive growth.

India’s overall place in the Global Competitiveness Index 2014–2015 rankings is 71 out of 144 countries.

24. RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Services ) Ltd., Mini Ratna Enterprise under the Ministry of Railways has received highest ever Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs. 306 crore during the year 2014-15, higher by 16% of previous year.

RITES Ltd., recorded Profit After Tax of Rs. 264 crore for the year 2013-2014.

25. Jagdeep Grewal, a fifty seven year old, Indian American has become the first woman to be appointed as the postmaster in Saramento, California. She will be the first woman to fill up this post in 166 years. She will be the 29th Postmaster to serve in Saramento. According to American Bazaar news portal, Jagdeep Grewal will supervise 1,004 employees. These employees will serve on 537 city routes and 94 rural routes.

26. The 28th edition of Asian Amateur Boxing Championship 2015, was held in Bangkok, Thailand. The 2015 Boxing Championship was one of the biggest competitions with 188 boxers from 28 countries. Out of 28 nations, 15 nations won medals in the event. 66 boxers qualified for DOHA 2015 AIBA World Boxing Championship through this Asian championship.

India wins 4 medals (1 Silver, 3 Bronze) and got sixth place in the medal list while Kazakhstan got first place with 7 medals.(5 Gold, 1 silver, 1 Bronze).

Vikas Krishnan (75Kg) won silver medal at the Asian Championship. Satish Kumar (95 Kg), L Devendro (49Kg), Shiva Thapa (56Kg) won Bronze medals.

27. On the occasion of International Literacy Day, President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee presented the Saakshar Bharat Awards 2015 in a celebration organized by Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD).

On this occasion, our honorable President stated that there is a need for greater societal involvement in achieving higher literacy target. In order to enable us fulfill the dream of ‘Sakshaar Bharat’, ‘Swachh Bharat’ and the ‘Dream Bharat’, we must follow progressive strategies such as ‘each one, teach one’. He also added that we must also ensure that the gender gap in literacy should not be more than 10 per cent.

   

CURRENT AFFAIRS 4^th SEPTEMBER’15 – 8^th SEPTEMBER’15

1. The Indian football team’s ranking improved by one place to occupy 155th place in the latest FIFA rankings released yesterday. Earlier in July, India had dropped 15 positions to 156th place after two successive defeats in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Argentina is ranked at No. 1 position followed by Belgium, Germany, Colombia and Brazil in the top positions.

2. Union Government has cancelled licence of NGO, Greenpeace India to receive foreign donations amid recent claims of not disclosing movement of its funds. The license was cancelled under Section 13 of Foreign Contribution Regulations Act (FCRA), 2011. Post this, Greenpeace India will be not able to receive any kind of foreign donations from its international network.

Greenpeace India is the subsidiary of the global environmental group Greenpeace, a non-profit NGO, which has its presence in 40 countries across the world.

3. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced to issue coins of 5 rupees denomination to commemorate golden jubilee year of Indo-Pak War 1965. These coins will be issued under in The Coinage Act, 2011. It will bear Lion Capital of Ashoka Pillar in the centre and Satyamev Jayate will be inscribed below it.

4. PSU firm Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) acquired 15% stake in Russia’s second-largest oil field from Rosneft for about USD 1.35 billion. ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of the state explorer, signed agreements in Moscow to buy 15% stake in the Vankor oil field in East Siberia. The 15% stake will give OVL about 3.5 million metric tonnes of oil a year.

5. Edelweiss Financial Services has roped in World No. 1 women’s badminton player Saina Nehwal as its brand ambassador for 3 years. Nehwal will be part of a national multimedia campaign and she will wear Edelweiss brand logo in her jersey while playing for domestic and international tournaments.

6. Lewis Hamilton extended his lead in this year’s world championship to 53 points after winning the Italian Grand Prix today. Sebastian Vettel secured second position and Felipe Massa secured third position in the race while Nico Rosberg was forced to retire with two laps to go.

7. Australia’s famous all-rounder Shane Watson announced his retirement from Test cricket today. With this, his 10 year old test career came to an end. He played 59 Tests for Australia, scoring 3,731 runs and taking 75 wickets. He will continue to play shorter form of Cricket including ODIs and T20s.

8. 1. Haryana Government has won the Skoch Order-of-Merit national award for implementing six e-Governance and IT initiatives in the state, announced by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in the state Assembly. The award will be presented to the state government later this month.

Skoch Order-of-Merit national award is given to top performing government organisations and private organisations working with the government. Given by Skoch Consultancy Services Private Limited, a strategy and management consulting firm founded in 1997.

9. The IMF said India is among the few bright spots in the global economy as G20 finance ministers began their two-day meeting against the backdrop of concerns over Chinese economic slowdown looming large on world markets. International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde said that at the meeting of G20 finance minister and Central Bank Governors where they also discussed monetary policy uncertainties.

10. Bollywood music composer-director Aadesh Shrivastava passed away in Mumbai on 5th September after suffering from cancer. He has been treated at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital for over 40 days after his cancer relapsed for the third time.

11. The Central Government has approved to implement One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme for retired army personal as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a part of his pre-Lok Sabha election agenda. The OROP will be effective from 1st July 2014 and it will provide ex-servicemen of same rank and same length of service uniform pension regardless of date of retirement for all three services – Army, Navy and Air Force.

Also Pension will be revised every five years and future enhancements in rates of pension would be automatically passed to the past pensioners. Estimated cost of this implementation will be nearly Rs. 8000 to Rs. 10,000 crore now and will increase in future.

12. Indian boxer Vikas Krishan won the silver medal in the Asian Championships held in Bangkok after defeating Uzbekistan’s Bektemir Melikuziev by 0-2 score in the final match of 75-Kg category. Other Indian Boxers Shiva Thapa (56kg), Devendro Singh (49kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) won bronze medals each in their respective categories.

13. Reliance Defence to build warships with UAE's Abu Dhabi Ship Building. Anil Ambani led Reliance Defence Ltd (RDL)  has entered into a pact with Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) to construct warships such as frigates and destroyers for the Persian Gulf nations over the next 10 years.

The MoU includes Combat Management Systems (CMS), Integrated Bridge Solutions (IBS), Combat System Integration (CSI), Integrated Platform Management Systems (IPMS) and staff training and development

14. Doha Bank on 7 September 2015 tied up with Anil Ambani-led Reliance ADA Group to generate business opportunities in the Gulf Cooperation Council nations and India. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

15. State-run telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will offer a minimum broadband speed of 2 mega bit per second (Mbps) on pan-India basis from October 1, at no extra cost.

Union Minister for Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched the facility in Gurgaon. This move  came in the light of Narendra Modi government's Digital India initiatives. The speed upgradation will benefit all the existing and new broadband customers of BSNL

16. Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit (APU) of South Africa was on 7 September 2015 selected for the 2015 UNEP(United Nations Environment Programme)Champions of the Earth award in the inspiration and action category.

17. India’s Gagan Narang becomes Asia’s No.1 shooter.  Ace Indian shooter and Olympic medalist Gagan Narang has attained the top spot in men's 50m rifle prone shooting category in Asia.

The 32-year-old Narang topped the list with 971 points ahead of Shengbo Zhao of China, who has 896 points.

Beijing Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, who is also through to the Rio Olympic Games, was ranked fifth in 10m air rifle followed by Narang in seventh position. Gurpreet Singh was positioned fifth in 25m rapid fire pistol.

Note:- Gagan Narang has bagged the bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics and has already booked a quota for next year’s Rio Olympic Games by bagging the bronze medal in the 50m rifle prone event of the ISSF World Cup, 2015.

18. 6th Indo-Maldives Joint Military Exercise begins in Thiruvananthapuram.  The sixth joint military training exercise, 'EKUVRIN 2015', between the Indian Army and the Maldives National Defence Forces (MNDF) has commenced at Pangode Military Station in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala.

19. Joshana Chinappa clinches Indian Squash Circuit Title. National champion Joshana Chinappa clinched the women’s title in the USD 15,000 NSCI Open JSW Indian Squash Circuit 2015.

Joshana won the title after defeating  Egyptian top seed Habiba Mohammad in straight games in the finals. she defeated Habiba 11-8 11-9 11-6 in a tough title-clash, which lasted 47 minutes.

20. Haryana government passed Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2015. The Assembly on the concluding day of its monsoon session passed the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2015.  Haryana has become the second State after Rajasthan to fix educational and other qualifications for the candidates contesting PRI elections.

The Bill fixes, matriculation as essential qualification for general candidates contesting the Panchayat elections while the qualification for the women (general) and Scheduled Caste candidate will be middle standard (VIII).

If Woman candidate belonging to SC category is contesting election for the post of Panch, the minimum qualification shall be V pass.

21. Brij Raj Sharma appointed as Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir. Sharma will replace Iqbal Khanday, who volunteered for retirement three months before reaching the age of superannuation.The State Cabinet, which met here under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed decided to appoint Sharma as Khanday's successor

22. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 6 September 2015 inaugurated the extension of Delhi Metro connecting Badarpur to Escorts Mujesar in Faridabad.

This extension till Faridabad, an industrial hub in Haryana would allow hassle-free travel for around two lakh daily commuters between the national capital and the industrial hub in Haryana.

The total cost of the project from Badarpur to Escorts Mujesar was to the tune of 2500 crore rupees.

23. The International Literacy Day was celebrated on 8 September 2015 across the world. The theme of International Literacy Day 2015 is Literacy and Sustainable Societies.

24. The G20 grouping on 6 September 2015 launched the W20 (Women20) in Ankara, Turkey. The focus of the W20 is to enhance the role of women in business.

It is in addition to the existing official engagement groups of the G20-B20 (Business20), C20 (Civil society20), L20 (Labour20), T20 (Think20) and Y20 (Youth20).

Gulden Turktan was appointed as the first president of the group.

She is one of the founders and President of the Women Entrepreneurs' Association in Turkey (KAGIDER), and is currently a member of its Executive Board.

25. The G-20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was held for two days on 4 September and 5 September 2015 at Ankara in Turkey.

The meeting was attended by the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the G20 members, invited countries, and the heads and senior representatives of the relevant international organizations.

India was represented by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Raghuram Rajan.

It consists of the US, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, the UK, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, and the European Union.

Further, it also discussed financial agenda of the Antalya Summit of the G20 leaders scheduled to be held in November 2015 in Turkey.

26. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 4 September 2015 released two commemorative coins of 125 rupees and 10 rupees in the memory of former President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

Modi released the coins at a function of his interaction with the central school students at Zorawar hall, Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi. The interaction session was organised on the eve of Teachers Day, which is celebrated across India on 5 September 2015.

Teachers Day celebrates the birthday of India's second President and scholar Dr Radhakrishnan.

27. China, Pakistan launch joint Air Drill ‘Shaheen (Eagle) – 4’

28. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Bodh Gaya described Bodh Gaya as the “land of enlightenment”, and said that his government would develop the site as the spiritual capital for it to serve as a civilisational bond between India and the Buddhist world.

In 2002, Mahabodhi Temple, located in Bodh Gaya, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site

For Buddhists, Bodh Gaya is one of the most important place and other pilgrimage sites related to the life of Gautama Buddha are Kushinagar, Lumbini, and Sarnath.

CURRENT AFFAIRS 1^st SEPTEMBER'15 – 3^rd SEPTEMBER'15

1. India’s largest stock exchange National Stock Exchange (NSE) has formalized a memorandum of understanding with the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) to facilitate co-operation between these two exchanges.

2. Swiss power and Tech giant ABB has appointed Bazmi Husain, managing director of ABB India, as the global chief technology officer, first time for an Indian. He has been with ABB for 30 years and will take over the new position in the beginning of 2016. Husain will now report to Group CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer.

3. Vinod Dasari, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland has been elected President of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the apex Industry body representing leading vehicle and vehicular engine manufacturers in India. Also Arvind Saxena, President and Managing Director, General Motors India has been elected as the new Vice – President while Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India is appointed the new Treasurer.

4. India was awarded with the UNESCO prize ‘Award of Excellence’ 2015 for the conservation efforts of the Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple in Kerala. The award was given in the Asia Pacific Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation which recognizes the conservation effort of sacred sites and its tangible attributes with conservation techniques emphasizing on architecture and construction. Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple is an ancient Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva located in Thrissur district of Kerala.

5. Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has recognized ‘Yoga’ as a sports discipline and placed it in the Priority category while reviewing and revising the categorization of various Sports disciplines across the country.

6. India’s leading e-commerce company Snapdeal has acquired Silicon Valley-based startup Reduce Data, a programmatic display advertising platform for an undisclosed sum. This is the twelfth acquisition done by Snapdeal since 2010.

7. USA President Barack Obama approved the proposal to rename Mount McKinley, the highest mountain peak in North America, as Denali. As per the White House statement “This designation recognises the sacred status of Denali to generations of Alaska’s natives.” The mountain, which sits in the 6 million-acre Denali national park, has been known as Denali in Alaska since 1975.

8. Durban city in South Africa has been selected as the host for the 2022 Commonwealth Games at the Federation’s general assembly in New Zealand today. The 2022 Commonwealth Games will be held from 18th to 30th July. The Commonwealth Games are held every four years .

9. The Central Government accepted the Justice AP Shah Committee report on the Minimum Alternative Tax, MAT on foreign institutional investors (FIIs), as announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today. With this, government will not impose levy on FIIs prior to 1st April 2015.

10. Anjuly Chib Duggal has taken over charge as Secretary in the Department of Financial Services in the Finance Ministry. She replaced Hasmukh Adhia, who has taken over as Revenue Secretary in the same Ministry. Before this appointment, She was holding the charge of Corporate Affairs Secretary.

11. NTPC’s Director (Technical) A K Jha today took additional charge of Chairman & Managing Director of the company till a permanent Chairman and MD is chosen for the PSU company. Earlier the Central Government has refused to give extension to Arup Roy Choudhury as CMD of NTPC. A search committee headed by Power Secretary P K Pujari is currently looking for a full-time CMD for NTPC.

12. L C Goyal has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Indian Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO) by the Central Government. Before this appointment, he was the secretary with Home Ministry.

13. Indian Mountaineer Jot Singh of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has been honoured with the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2014-15 by President Pranab Mukherjee during the national sports awards presentation ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on the National Sports Day – 29th August. He has become the 11th ITBP official to receive this honour.

14. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has declared State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) in line with the D-SIB Framework released by the RBI in July last year. These two banks have been identified as D-SIBs based on the methodology provided in the D-SIB Framework and data collected from banks as on 31st March 2015.

As a result, SBI has been put under Bucket 3 with additional Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) requirements as a percentage of Risk Weighted Assets (RWAs) placed at 0.6% while ICICI Bank has been put under Bucket 1 with additional CET1 requirements as a percentage of RWAs placed at 0.2%.

15. India ended a 22 year long wait of winning test series over Sri Lanka on Sri Lankan soil after completing a 117-run victory in the third and final test against Sri Lanka today. After setting a big target of 386 to win, Sri Lankan batsmen were all out at 268 only.

16. The housing ministry has identified 305 cities and towns across nine states for its ‘Housing for All’ (Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojna) scheme. With this it will start building houses for the poor in urban areas as per its target to provide houses to two crore families belonging to the economically weaker section (EWS) in urban areas by 2022.

The states that are likely to gain are Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, J&K, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana. Also six other states; Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Uttarakhand have agreed to implement six key reforms relating to clearances and approval for housing projects to accelerate their construction.

17. The government has appointed the Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi as the new Home Secretary. Current he is working as the Economic Affairs Secretary and due to superannuate today. He will hold the post for 2 years. He succeeds L.C. Goyal, IAS who took voluntary retirement from government service due to personal reasons with immediate effect.

18. Senior IAS officer Raghav Chandra has taken over as the Chairman of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) today.He succeeds Road Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Chhibber who was given the additional charge of the key post in June this year for three months after former Chairman R P Singh completed his tenure.

Before this current appointment, Chandra was Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor for the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, ADF and Culture.

19. Indian economy grew by 7% in the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2015-16 which is much higher than the 6.7% growth recorded in the same quarter last fiscal year. However this growth is much lower compared to 7.5% growth witnessed in the previous quarter. The manufacturing sector grew by 7.2% in the same quarter compared to 8.4% in the year-ago period while growth in the output of electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services dropped sharply to 3.2% compared to 10.1% a year earlier.The farm and allied sectors grew at 1.9% compared to 2.6% in the same quarter last year.

RBI, which has cut interest rate by 0.75% since January this year, may cut interest rates during its next bi-monthly policy on 29th September.

20. India’s core sector growth slowed to 3-month low of 1.1% in July compared to 4.1% growth in the same month last year due to contraction in crude oil, natural gas and steel sector output. These eight core sectors have nearly 38% weight in overall Index of Industrial Production (IIP).