Current Affairs Today – November 5 2015

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• Current Affairs November 2015
• Current Affairs November Quiz 2015

INDIAN AFFAIRS

• Union Cabinet gives nod to UDAY Scheme for financial restructuring package for power DISCOMs
• PM launches gold schemes, coin with Ashok Chakra

• Union Cabinet gives nod to MoU on Tourism with Colombia

NGT bans age-old agricultural practice of straw burning in Northern States

National Green Tribunal (NGT) has banned age-old agricultural practice of straw burning in pollution-ravaged New Delhi announced by a is a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar directed the Delhi government.

• Imposition of 2,500 to 15,000 rupees fine on farmers indulged in straw burning. District magistrates should form a committee to carry out awareness programmes for farmers and villagers in order to educate them about the ill-effects of straw burning.

Northern States : Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

About NGT :

• National Green Tribunal (NGT) has been established on 2010 under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010 for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources.
• NGT has directed Respective governments of Delhi and four northern to keep check the bi-annual menace of straw burning

Cause of  Straw Burning :-

• Crop burning is expected to be one of the most serious contributors to pollution and the ecology, besides vehicular emission, dust and burning of other materials.
• Straw Burning emits Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Carbon monoxide (CO) and Nitrous Oxide (NO) and becomes a major cause of air pollution and it causes loss of nutrients from the soil.

Daughters cannot inherit ancestral property if father died before 2005: SC

By disappointing many women in the country, the apex court(Supreme court) announced that the 2005 amendment in Hindu law will not give property rights to a daughter if the father died ahead the amendment took place. If the daughter want to become a co-sharer with her brothers, the father would have to be alive on September 9, 2005.

Highlights:

Bench led by  Justices Anil R Dave and Adarsh K Goel said that the date of a daughter having equal right in an ancestral property is on and from the day one of the Act.

• Division of inherited property plus its distribution taken place before December 20, 2004 likewise the law applicable at that time, would remain unaffected by the 2005 amendment, and those distributions can no longer be resumed by daughters.
• Till now, they could not ask for a share if the property had been divided or distributed before December 20, 2004, the date the Bill was made known.

Supreme court of India:

Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial assembly and final court of appeal under the Constitution of India. It consists of the Chief Justice of India and 30 other judges. As the final court of appeal, it takes up appeals against decisions of the High Courts of various States.

Varanasi selected for Microsoft’s experimental Internet pilot project

On a 1-day visit to India Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella selected holy city Varanasi(PM Narendra Modi’s constituency) for experimenting technology pilot for the ardent Digital India programme.

Purpose: To grant local entrepreneurs planning to build devices that can beat India’s bandwidth problem

Two pilot projects by Microsoft in India

A government school in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh and  Varanasi.

Microsoft: An American multinational technology company that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services  
Best software products are the Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office office suite, Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers.

HQ:  Microsoft Redmond Campus,,Washington, U.S.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

• PM Narendra Modi ranks 9th in 2015 Forbes’ World’s Most Powerful Person

UNGA Disarmament Committee adopts draft resolution backing abolition of nuclear arms

The United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) Disarmament Committee has adopted a draft resolution submitted by Japan calling for the abolition of nuclear arms.

• The resolution was adopted by 156 member countries, while 17 abstaining and 3 voting against it including China and Russia.
• But it failed to secure endorsement US, Britain, France and other key powers as they abstained from voting despite supporting it.

UNGA Disarmament Committee or First Committee :

The First Committee deals with disarmament, global challenges and threats to peace that affect the international community and seeks out solutions to the challenges in the international security regime.

Hindi largest spoken Indian language in US: Census Bureau of US

According to the latest Census data Hindi has emerged as the largest Indian language spoken in the US with nearly 6.5 lakh people.

• The US Census Bureau based on American Community Survey data collected from 2009 to 2013 said that more than 60 million people in the US speak a language other than English at home and 25 million of whom speak English.

Top languages other than English spoken in US homes

Other Languages of India :

• Nearly 4 lakh US residents speak Urdu and Gujarati is spoken by more than 3.7 lakh people. Other than Hindi, all the major Indian languages are also spoken in the US.
• While Bengali and Punjabi are spoken by more than 2.5 lakh people each, the Census bureau says Marathi is spoken by more than 73,000 people, Oriya (more than 5,000), Assamese (about 1300) and Kashmiri by about 1700 people in the US.
• Bihari as a language spoken by nearly 600 people and Rajasthani by about 700.
• Nepali is spoken by more than 94,000 people and Sindhi by nearly 9,000.
• 250,000 people speak Telugu while Tamil is spoken by about 190,000 people, Malayalam (about 146,000 people) and Kannada (about 48,000).
• Tribal language Munda is spoken by more than 2,000 people and Tibetan by over 16,000.

UK signs 3 billion pounds in trade deals with Kazakhstan

David Cameron faced intense criticism after trade deals(40) worth 3 billion pounds with the president of Kazakhstan(Nursultan Nazarbayev) who is controversial due to  allegations of torture, shooting of protestors, religious repression and media censorship.

Agreement:

• Four new gas plants and a steel production facility in Kazakhstan as chief units of a growing association, suggesting the latter could benefit the UK’s own crisis-hit steel industry.
• Cooperation on global issues such as Ukraine and relations with its two giant neighbours, China and Russia.

Kazakhstan:  

• Huge reserves of oil and untapped minerals
• A long border with China and Russia
• Capital, Currency: Astana, Tenge
• PM: Karim Massimov

APPOINTMENTS

Ravikumar Sreedharan appointed as MD of Unisys Corporation India

IT solutions company Unisys Corporation has appointed Ravikumar Sreedharan as managing director of its India unit from October 31. Sreedharan, who was leading the application services group in Unisys India takes on additional charge as MD from Kumar Prabhas.

• Sreedharan will be responsible for leading the company’s operations in India, where it has more than 5,000 employees working at state-of-the-art sites in Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.

Ravikumar Sreedharan :

• Ravi is a highly accomplished and respected leader with a track record of success in his prior roles.
• Sreedharan has been with Unisys since 2010, leading the Application Services Group (ASG) as a part of the Services organisation.

Maldives Parliament impeaches Vice President Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Ghafoor

Maldives police arrested the country’s vice president over his involvement in a blast on a speedboat carrying the country’s president.

Profile:

• Adheeb secured the vice president’s post after the constitution amendments that set age restrictions on contestants for presidency and vice presidency.
• The constitutional amendment came into effect in 2008 restricted the age for presidency and vice presidency from 30 to 65 years, was 35 years with no upper age limit.
• The amendment broadly regarded as the first step in the consecutive impeachment of then Vice President Jameel

Key points

• Maldives Currency: Rufiyaa
• Maldives Capital: Male

Justin Trudeau sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s new leader,  sworn in as 23rd  prime minister of Canada.

• School teacher turned politician was elected to parliament in 2008, and becomes the second youngest prime minister in Canadian history.

Indian- origin people in cabinet

• Vancouver South MP Harjit Sajjan Minister for National Defence
• Sajjan taking Minister for National Defence.
• Navdeep Bains as Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development
• Amarjeet Sohi Minister of Infrastructure and Communities

About Justin Trudeau

• Born in Ottawa, Canada
• Leader of the Liberal Party
• Eldest son of the 15th Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau

AWARDS

• Actor Vikram Gokhale awarded 2015 Vishnudas Bhave Award

SPORTS

• 2015 Paragliding World Cup concluded

Jitu Rai won silver in 13th Asian Shooting Championship

Ace shooter Jitu Rai won India’s first senior medal at the 13th Asian Shooting Championship, finishing second behind Korea’s Park Daehun in the finals of the men’s 50m pistol.

Venue : Kuwait

Park shot a finals world and Asian record score of 199.2 to clinch the gold medal. Jitu finished with a finals score of 189.5 and qualified for the finals in 7th position with a score of 555.

Asian Shooting Championship Winners

Asian Shooting Championship :

• TheAsian Shooting Championships are governed by the Asian Shooting Confederation . Asian Shooting Championships began in 1967.
• These championships, including almost allISSF shooting events, are held every four years.

OBITUARY

Former Indian Ambassador to Nepal Bimal Prasad passes away

A close partner of Jayaprakash Narayan Bimal Prasad(92) India’s former Ambassador to Nepal passed away.

Widely known for his study of the Indian independence movement, especially on the prosperous foreign policy of the Indian national congress, written many analysis of Foreign Affairs in the South Asian region.

Academic Career:

• Prasad was professor of history at University of Patna, Patna
• South Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Dean, School of International Studies

As an Ambassador to Nepal

He is known as an expert on relations within South Asia and has had personal connections with many leaders from the region. He had worked with Indian prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and his Nepali counterpart Girija Prasad Koirala to strengthen India’s aid to Nepal.

Books he authored:

A  number of books on Jayaprakash Narayan’s philosophy and life

• Socialism, Sarvodaya and Democracy
• Gandhi, Nehru and JP, Studies in Leadership
• A Revolutionary’s Quest

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

ISRO releases book on Indian Space Programme

Prof U R Rao, Chairman ,PRL Council and Former Chairman, ISRO released a book on Indian Space Programme “From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet” to commemorate second anniversary of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft launched.

• Chief Editor of the book is P V Manoranjan Rao, and its Associate Editors are B N Suresh and V P Balagangadharan, all retired ISRO Scientists.

Mars Orbiter Spacecraft

• ISRO had launched the Mars Orbiter Mission’s spacecraft on its nine-month long odyssey on a homegrown PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013.
• Mars Orbiter Spacecraft has successfully completed one year in orbit around Mars on September 24, 2015. ISRO had released the Mars Atlas to mark the feat of the Orbiter whose life is now expected to last many more years.
• During the past one year of spacecraft operations around Mars and also on the data received from the five payloads of the spacecraft.

Key points :

• ISRO Headquarters : Bengaluru,Karnataka.
• ISRO Chairman : A S Kiran Kumar