Current Affairs Today – August 19 2015

Dear Readers, We cover some important news in Current Affairs Today Section, which are not covered in Daily Detailed News, More Current Affairs coverage will help you to Score Good Marks in Competitive Exam.

**Blue Heading are Detailed News, Click the News to Read More**

Indian Affairs 

• Union Government announces Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package for Bihar
• Tata Trusts to develop 264 villages in Vijayawada under SAGY initiative

Lonely Planet ranks Taj Mahal as world’s fifth most attractive travel hotspot

• The Taj Mahal has made it to the top five of a prestigious new list of the world’s best tourist attractions.
• Lonely Planet’s “Ultimate Travelist” ranks the historic mausoleum built in Agra by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as the fifth most attractive travel hotspot in the world and describes it as a “magnificent Mughal masterpiece”.
• The Temples of Angkor, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern Cambodia, tops the list as a complex of more than 1,000 temples, shrines and tombs which attracts more than 2 million visitors annually.
• The Great Barrier Reef in Australia comes in at number two, the Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru at number three, and the Great Wall of China at four.

US firm signs deal with Haryana government to create 2000 jobs

• The Haryana government has signed a deal with a leading US firm to manufacture air conditioners at an eight-acre facility in Gurgaon that will generate about 2,000 jobs.
• The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Connecticut-based firm United Technologies and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar

Lenovo-Motorola starts making smartphones at Chennai plant

• Lenovo has begun local manufacturing of smartphones at Sriperumbudur near Chennai through global contract manufacturing partner Flextronics, becoming the second Chinese company after Xiaomi to have its mobile devices made in India.
• The company has started making two 4G smartphones, the Moto E and the Lenovo K3 Note.
• The Chennai plant, which has already hired 1,500 employees, is the only plant outside China that produces devices for both the smartphone brands.

International Affairs

Sri Lanka General Elections 2015: UNFGG emerges as largest group

• United National Party (UNP) led United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) has emerged as the single largest party with 106 seats in the 225-member legislature.
• Sri Lankan parliamentary election 2015 was held on 17 August 2015 to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka’s 15th Parliament.

United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG)
Direct election-93 seats
National list-13 seats
Total-106 seats
Leader of the UNFGG and UNP and current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesing he is expected to form a new government with the support of 95 MPs of United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) loyal to President Maithripala Sirisena.

Banking & Finance 

• Finance Minister launches two funds for promoting MSMEs and Start-ups
• LIC launches maiden unit linked insurance plan (ULIP)
• RBI granted ‘in-principle’ approval to 11 applicants to start a payments bank

BSE sets up new system for reporting suspicious trades

• Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) a new system used for checking money laundering through stock markets was set up by BSE stock exchange.
• BSE has asked its members to report on a monthly basis details of the STRs (Suspicious Transaction Reports) submitted to the government’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
• Trading members are required to submit the data through a specific FIU-STR module of the online gateway BSE Electronic Filing System.
• The members have been asked to provide details of their registration with the FIU, as also the information about the principal officer and the designated directors for the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) compliance.
• FIU India is the government agency responsible for receiving, processing and analysing financial transactions and disseminating information relating to suspect transactions to various intelligence and enforcement agencies.

Awards and Recognition

• TPP Nair, SP Misra, Romeo James recommended for Dhyan Chand award 2015

Lionel Richie named MusiCares Person of the Year

• Lionel Richie will receive the 2016 MusiCares Person of the Year award in honor of his storied music career and charitable work for multitude causes.
• Richie will be honoured at the 26th annual MusiCares benefit gala 2016.
• Richie wrote soulful songs such as “Three Times a Lady,” ”Still” and “Easy” that spanned across musical genres. As a solo artist, he became an international success with his diamond certified album “Can’t Slow Down,” which spawned the hit “All Night Long (All Night).”
• Last year’s MusiCares recipient was Bob Dylan.
• President and CEO of the MusiCares Foundation and the Recording Academy: Neil Portnow.

Zia, Bangladeshi writer has won Britain’s oldest literary award

• Novelist Zia Haider Rahman , Bangladeshi writer has won Britain’s oldest literary award -James Tait Black Literary Prizes awarded by the University of Edinburgh, since 1919 were announced by broadcaster Sally Magnusson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
• He receive this award for his novel “In the Light of What We Know” released in the spring of 2014 to international critical acclaim .His novel was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• DH Lawrence, Graham Greene, Angela Carter and Ian McEwan are among the past winners of the prizes.

About Zia Haider Rahman:

• He was born in rural Bangladesh, the author was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and at Cambridge, Munich, and Yale Universities.
• He has also worked as an anti-corruption activist for Transparency International.

Sports

Aditi Chauhan 1st Woman Indian Football player to play in UK

• Aditi Chauhan, India’s international football goalkeeper, has became the country’s first woman to play English league football.
• She made her debut for the women’s team of the West Ham United in the opening game of the season against Coventry City.
• This development comes months after the signing of Indian men’s team goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu to play first division football in Norway.

Coe pips Bubka to become world athletics chief

• Britain’s Sebastian Coe beat Sergey Bubka in a tight vote to become the new president of world athletics body the IAAF.
• Coe received 115 votes to Bubka’s 92, and will take over from Lamine Diack.

Obituary

India’s First Lady Suvra Mukherjee passed away

• India’s First Lady Suvra Mukherjee, wife of President Pranab Mukherjee, passed away on 18 August 2015 following a cardiac arrest in New Delhi. She was 74.
• Suvra Mukherjee was born on September 17, 1940 in Jessore (now in Bangladesh) and married Pranab Mukherjee on July 13, 1957.
• A graduate, she was an ardent fan of India’s national poet, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.
• She was a vocalist of Rabindra Sangeet and performed in the poet’s dance-dramas for many years not only in different parts of India, but also in Europe, Asia and Africa.

All In The Family’ producer Bud Yorkin dies at 89

• Bud Yorkin, a director and producer of topical TV comedy with the 1970s hit “All in the Family,” died at 89.
• He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and went to work for NBC in the 1950s, directing hit shows of the era including the “Dinah Shore Show.”
• He won six Emmy Awards, a Peabody, a Sylvania and a Director’s Guild Award, also collaborated with Mr. Lear on “Maude,” “The Jeffersons” and “Sanford and Son” .
• Mr. Yorkin was named man of the year by the Television Academy in 1973 and inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2002.

Malayalam actor Paravoor Bharathan died

• Malayalam film actor Paravoor Bharathan died at 86.
• He began his career in the late 1940s in drama, he first appeared in films in 1951 and till 2009 was an integral part of the film industry.
• He acted in more than 250 movies, Some of his well-known films include In Harihara Nagar, Aniyan Bava Chetan Bava and Aniathipravu.

Important Days 

• World Humanitarian Day

Click here to view: Current Affairs August 2015