Current Affairs Today – September 15 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.

• Current Affairs September 2015
• Current Affairs September Quiz 2015

Indian Affairs 

• IISc, IIT-D in top 200 in QS World University Rankings 2015-16
• Gujarat tops in ease of doing business in India: World Bank Report 2015
• Sports Ministry Grants Recognition to Indian Kalarippayattu Federation as RSF
• Andhra Pradesh unveils “New Tourism Policy”
• Union Govt. formed Mihir Shah Committee to restructure water agencies
• States seek review of ban on CMs’ photos in ads

MGNREGA: 50 days extra work in drought-hit areas

• The Centre has decided to provide additional 50 days of work in drought-hit areas under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, to provide relief to farmers in view of deficit monsoon
• Presently, 100 days of work is provided to rural job card holders under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

About Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act:

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005, also known as the “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act” is an Indian labour law and social security measure.

Aims:

• To guarantee the ‘right to work’ and ensure livelihood security in rural areas.
• To create durable assets that would augment the basic resources available to the poor.
• To follow the Directive Principles of State Policy enunciated in Part IV of the Constitution of India and conforms to the Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that defines the right to work as a basic human right.

Tamil Nadu government to set up Tamil Nadu Fibernet Corporation

• Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha announced to set up Tamil Nadu Fibernet Corporation in order to implement the Central Government’s Bharatnet scheme.
• The total cost of the Tamil Nadu Fiber net Corporation t is Rs 3000 crore. This project aims to link 12524 villages through optical fibre network
• She has also announced Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services to all households of Tamil Nadu to use of the ISP service obtained by the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation. Main aim of this initiative is to provide quality internet service to all households of Tamil Nadu.

Indian Railways tie up with Google to provide free Wi-Fi service

• Google has partnered with RailTel to provide free Wi-Fi services under Project Nilgiri. which covers 400 railway stations across the country.
• The first phase of this project which covers 400 Wi-Fi hotspots scheduled to be completed in four months.
• Railtel has Optic fiber network through railway tracks in rural as well as urban areas which cover 70 per cent of India’s population.
• Currently Indian Railway offers Wi-Fi service to certain trains and Railway stations.
• The Wi-Fi service is available to the passengers on their mobiles for the first 30 minutes with free.
• To use beyond 30 minutes the users may purchase the scratch cards which are available at Wi-Fi Help Desks.
• These scratch cards are priced at Rs 25 and Rs 35 for 30 minutes and an hour respectively and both are valid for 24 hours.
• RailTel Public Relation Manager: Sucharita Pradha

SpiceJet first airline to make night landing at Port Blair

• SpiceJet, low-cost airline becomes the first airline to make night landing at Veer Savarkar International Airport, Port Blair.
• SpiceJet’s SG-251 flew from Kolkata and landed at Veer Savarkar International Airport, Port Blair at 6:10 pm, 50 minutes after the sunset under the command of Capt. Gurcharan Arora and Capt. Ranbir Singh
• Later, the aircraft SG-261 departed for Kolkata at 6.45 pm so that completing a cycle of landing and take-off from the Port Blair airport during the night time.

About Spicejet

• Headquarters: Gurgaon, Haryana
• CEO: Sanjiv Kapoor

FSSAI proposes new safety rules for siddha and ayurvedic products

• FSSAI proposes norms to check mislabeling of ‘Health Supplements’.
• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has framed regulations for products based on ayurveda, sidhha, unani as well as other traditional health systems.
• It has fixed limits including maximum usage levels per day for food supplement products based on ayurveda, siddha and unani.
• The proposed levels of the maximum usage for the ingredients such as ghee, curd, butter, honey, gold, gold foil, silver, pearl, milk of cow, buffalo and camel in ayurveda, siddha and unani ingredients based food supplement products.

About FSSAI:

• FSSAI an agency of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been formed in 2011 under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006
• FSSAI chairman: Ashish Bahuguna
• FSSAI Headquartes: New Delhi

International Affairs 

• Malcolm Turnbull sworn in as new Australian prime minister
• UN adopts negotiating text for Security Council reforms

India Ranks 142 in Ease of Doing Business Among 189 Economies: World Bank

• India continues to be a tough place for doing business even as the country has improved regulator processes for starting enterprises and trading across borders, according to World Bank.
• In terms of ease of doing business, India is ranked 142nd among 189 countries in the latest rankings issued by the World Bank.
• Singapore is at the top position, followed by New Zealand. Hong Kong SAR (China) is at the third spot. Other nations in the top 10 are Denmark (4th), Korea Republic (5th), Norway (6th), the US (7th), the UK (8th), Finland (9th) and Australia (10th).
• A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. The rankings are determined by sorting the aggregate distance to frontier scores on 10 topics, each consisting of several indicators, giving equal weight to each topic. The rankings for all economies are benchmarked to June 2014.

Nepal Constituent Assembly denies proposal to declare as a Hindu state

• Constituent Assembly of Nepal has rejected the proposal to declare Nepal as a Hindu State.
• The proposal was forwarded by Pro-Hindu National Democratic Party of Nepal to declare Nepal as a Hindu State.
• Only 21 members of the Constituent Assembly supported this proposal out of total 601 members. It is necessary to secure 10% of vote to amend this proposal.

Nepal:

• Capital – Kathmandu ; Currency – Nepalese rupee
• Prime Minister of Nepal: Sushil Koirala
• President of Nepal: Ram Baran Yadav

Banking & Finance 

• RBI, Nepal Rastra Bank ink pact for supervisory info exchange

SBI Card rolls out SimplyCLICK

• SBI Card launches SimplyCLICK an online specific credit card in association with seven of biggest e-commerce partners which includes Amazon India, BookMyShow, Cleartrip, Ola Cabs, LensKart, Food Panda and Fab Furnish.
• The SimplyCLICK of SBI Card is India’s 1st ever credit card that focuses on online shopping across different categories.
• Customers who will spend more than Rs.2 lakh via online will receive Rs 4000 worth of Vouchers.
• Customers will have to pay a fee of Rs. 499. But they will also get an Amazon e-gift welcome voucher worth of Rs. 500.

About SBI Card:

• SBI Cards and Payment Services Private Limited (SBI Card) – A joint venture between State Bank of India and GE Capital, US based commercial company.
• CEO of GE Capital India –Ashish Sharma
• CEO of SBI Card – Vijay Jasuja

Paytm to start Country’s first payment bank

• Paytm to launch India’s first payments bank by the end of this fiscal year. Paytm is the one among the 11 applicants who got the approval from RBI to establish payment banks recently.
• Paytm to get Rs 10,000 crore in deposits in the next three years. It has more than 104 million mobile wallets and it is expected that it will reach 150 million mobile wallets by March 2016.

About Payment Banks:

• Payment Banks can receive deposits and provide remittances only. It allows money transfer and issue debit cards.
• Payment Banks will offer most of the banking services and act as a Business Correspondent (BC) of other Banks.
• Customers can buy financial products such as Insurance and mutual funds while it does not provide loan and the credit cards
• The minimum paid-up equity capital for payments banks – 100 crore

Paytm:

Founder and CEO of Paytm – Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Paytm Headquarters – Noida

Business 

Mahindra Group enters e-commerce segment with M2ALL launch

• 16.9 billion USD Mahindra group has finally made it’s debut into the e-commerce space with the launch of M2ALL.com, an e-marketplace for Mahindra products and services.
• The online marketplace has begun taking bookings for the new compact SUV Mahindra TUV300 the compact sports utility vehicle from the Mahindra stable.
• Mahindra e-Market Private Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, owns this e-commerce venture and has been developed under the guidance of Mahindra Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) VS Parthasarathy.
• Mr Parthasarathy has been named as the Chairman of this venture and Vijay S. Mahajan heads it. A small team of 10 people are involved in this project and more are expected to join soon

Awards

• Bangladesh PM Hasina wins UN environment prize for leadership on climate change

Sports 

Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponappa named under Target Olympic Podium scheme

• Indian badminton players, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa , Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Atri have been selected under the Target Olympic Podium(TOP) scheme.
• The players will receive funding from National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) which covers for hiring their respective coaches and some other training-related expenses for Rio de Janerio Olympics 2016 in Brazil.
• Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu, P. Kashyap, K. Srikanth, Guru Saidutt and H.S. Prannoy were the first to be included in the Target Olympic Podium(TOP) scheme in April.

Obituary

England ex-captain Brian Close passes away

• Former England captain Brian Close has died at the age of 84, the English and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement on Monday.
• Close became the youngest player ever to win a Test cap for England when he made his debut against New Zealand in 1949 as an 18-year-old.
• The left-handed batsman went on to lead his country seven times in 22 Tests, and also captained his native county Yorkshire to four County Championship titles.
• Also an off-spinner, Close made almost 35,000 first-class runs in a career which spanned over three decades from his breakthrough debut season in 1949 to a final appearance in 1986.

Important Days

• UN Resolution – 9 December as International Genocide Commemoration Day
• International Day of Democracy – 15th September

National Engineer’s Day – September 15th 

• Engineers play an important role in the making of a nation.In India, Engineers Day is marked on the birth anniversary of the most beloved engineer, India has ever produced Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya.
• The 48th Engineers’ Day is being celebrated with the theme of “Engineering Challenges for Knowledge Era”.
• Visvesvaraya, who was a proud recipient of India’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 1955, was born on Sept 15, 1860. He is best known for his cutting edge research, innovation and hard work.
• He also designed the Khadakwasla Dam near Pune, Tigra Dam in Gwalior and handled several projects across the country.
• Born in Muddenahalli village (40 kms away from Mysore), Sir M Visvesvaraya did his primary schooling in Chikballapur and attended high school in Bangalore.