Current Affairs Today – May 28 2015

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Indian Affairs 

• Mhara Gaon Jagmag Gaon scheme to be launched in Haryana

Tripura withdraws AFSPA,1958 from the state

• State government of Tripura on 27 May 2015 decided to withdraw the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958 from the remaining areas of the state immediately, after the Tripura police in its latest half-yearly review found no need to extend the Act further.
• The decision to withdraw the Act was taken during a cabinet meet which was chaired by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.
• The Act was enforced in the state in 1997 in 40 police station falling within the areas of the state, dominated by the tribals due to continuous violence and bloodshed.
• Earlier in June 2013, the Act was withdrawn from nine police stations.

Maharashtra govt. to launch ‘Swachhata Saptapadi’ scheme

• On the lines of Centre’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Maharashtra Govt. will launch Swachhata Saptapadi scheme, a cleanliness drive. The first mission of Swachhata Saptapadi will be to provide the eight lakh homes in urban areas of the state, that do not have toilets, proper facilities to defecate.
• The grants received by the municipal councils and corporations from the 14th Finance Commission will be linked with the successful implementation of the scheme.
• Aamir Khan will be the first in the inauguration ceremony along with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and Minister of State for Urban Development Dr Ranjit Patil.
• Under the new scheme, debris will not be allowed to dump at dumping grounds and processing of waste will be made mandatory.If the councils and corporations fail to implement Swachata Saptrapati, they will loose a part of the grant.

Himachal Pradesh government sets up satellite tracking system to check forest fire

• A satellite tracking system has been set up to check forest fires during summers in Himachal Pradesh.
• Under the satellite tracking system, continuous vigil was being kept on the forests to ensure that the fire fighting staff reached the spot immediately on receiving information.
• The Forest Minister said that awareness campaign was being launched throughout the state for protection of forest wealth from fire for which 693 participatory committees had been constituted.

International Affairs 

• India tops world hunger list with 194 million people – UN report

India remains at 44th rank in the annual global competitiveness report

• Swiss business school, International Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) annual Global Competitiveness list is out and India secured the 44th rank.
• It cited problems like high corporate taxes and existence of a parallel economy for the low ranking.
• The top 10 ranks include US (1) Hong Kong (2) and Singapore (3) move up overtaking Switzerland(4), Canada (5),Luxembourg (6) Norway (7), Denmark (8), Sweden (9) and Germany (10).
• Some challenges for India in 2015 are achieving high growth with zero defect, zero effect model, mobilization of resources for public investment, implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, skill development and employment generation and infrastructure development.
• India’s economic performance improved from 21 to 16 rank, and business efficiency slightly increased from 34 to 33. Government efficiency remained at the same spot on 47 but infrastructure declined from 57 to 58.India was ranked 13th in the Asia Pacific category.

Singapore appoints Indian-origin diplomat S Chandra Das as envoy to Sri Lanka

• Singapore has appointed an Indian- origin businessman as its non-Resident High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, the Foreign Ministry announced today.
• S Chandra Das served as Singapore’s Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey, resident in Singapore, from 2006 to 2015.
• He had also previously served as Singapore’s Trade Representative from 1970 to 1972 in the USSR, the former Soviet Union.

Banking & Finance 

LIC raises stake in Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda

• Country’s largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has raised stake in state-owned Canara Bank by about 7.7 per cent through preferential allotment of shares.
• It has also increased its stake in another public sector lender Bank of Baroda (BoB) by buying 4.7 crore shares from the open market. With the acquisition, the LIC’s stake in BoB increased by 2.1 per cent to 11.4 per cent. LIC acquired the stake for a consideration of about Rs 750 crore as per the current price.
• With the acquisition, the LIC’s stake in BoB increased by 2.1 per cent to 11.4 per cent. LIC acquired the stake for a consideration of about Rs 750 crore as per the current price. These shares were acquired over a period between January 16 and May 25, 2015 from the open market, BoB said in a Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) filing.
• With acquisition of 4 crore shares for a consideration of Rs 1,520.32 crore, the stake of LIC in Canara Bank has gone up to 14.4 per cent, the lender said in a separate filing on the BSE. Prior to this preferential allotment, LIC was holding 3.46 crore shares or 6.7 per cent in Canara Bank.

Awards

• Five Indian students win Airbus innovation contest

Appointments

• Christopher – New Director General of DRDO 

India Bank appoints new Central Financial Officer(CFO)

• India Bank General Manager V A Prasanth has been appointed as the new CFO of the bank with immediate effect.
• He will replace K Srinivasa Raghavan as informed to the BSE by the bank.
• NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has beamed latest images of Pluto :
• New Horizons has released some latest images of the distant estranged planet Pluto, on the 109th birthday of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the distant icy world in 1930.
• New Horizons was nearly 203 million kilometres away from Pluto when it began taking images, with New Horizons’ telescopic Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI),which is why Pluto appears as a dot.
• Alan Stern-New Horizons principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. This project was launched more than nine years ago.

Environmental 

• New human ancestor species discovered in Afar region of Ethiopia

Sports

Abhinav Bindra becomes fourth Indian shooter to qualify for 2016 Rio Olympics

• Abhinav Bindra became the fourth Indian to qualify for 2016 Rio Olympics by finishing sixth in a field of 132 shooters with 122.4 points at the ISSF World Cup in Munich
• Ace Chinese shooter Zhu Qinan won the gold medal with 206 points in the final, while Vladimir Maslennikov of Russia settled for silver with 205.7 points
• Gagan Narang, Jitu Rai and Apurvi Chandela are the other Indians to have secured an Olympic quota earlier.
• According to rule each country can win a maximum of 30 quota places from a total of 15 shooting disciplines (including shotgun events), two each from each discipline.

Obituary 

Documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark passes away

• Influential documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark passed away in Manhattan, New York. She was 75.
• She was best-known for her humanist work and was one of the premier documentary photographers of her generation.
• In her career she had photographed people who were mainly away from mainstream society.