Current Affairs Today – September 24 2015

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• Current Affairs September 2015
• Current Affairs September Quiz 2015

Indian Affairs

• Labour Ministry Wants 15x Hike in Rehab Cost of Bonded Labourers
• NITI Aayog forms “T Haque panel” on land lease
• Amended I-T Act exempt foreign companies under DTAAs from MAT
• BIS to raise standards for 43 products as part of Make in India

Telangana signs PPA with Chhattisgarh to buy 1000MW Power

• Telangana government has entered into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Chhattisgarh for supply of 1000MW Power for 12 years.
• The agreement was signed by the MD of Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited, G Raghuma Reddy and Ankit Anand, MD of Chhattisgarh Power Distribution Company in the presence of the Telangana Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao.
• Telangana Government has been developing a transmission network to bring power from Chhattisgarh. A 765-kv double-circuit line is currently under construction between Wardha and Dichpalli. The handling capacity of the line will be 4,350 MW of power.

UNDP offers support for Arunachal Vision 2030

• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will provide support in the implementation of Arunachal Vision 2030 and Chief Minister’s Mission on Skill Development and Employment Generation in Arunachal Pradesh. 
• Dr. Jaco Cilliers, the country head of UNDP India has announced that the organization will support these two initiatives by the state government during the meeting with Chief Minister Nabam Tuki   in New Delhi.
• Dr. Ruchi Pant, UNDP India Programme Analyst, has also announced that UNDP will collaborate with the state government in the other fields like bio diversity conservation, eco tourism development, disaster management and medicinal plants.
• Arunachal Vision 2030 covers short and long term goals in the development of six different fields namely border development, economic potential, infrastructure, resource mobilization, social sectors and social harmony.

8000 Cr Integrated Air Command & Control System cleared by Cabinet

The government has cleared the proposal for a nearly Rs 8,000-crore project for Indian Air Force Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS).

AIM – Integrating all ground and air censors.

• Cabinet Committee on Security cleared the proposal that was sanctioned by the Defence Acquisition Council in November
• Once the system is in place, the air headquarters will get a composite air situation picture since it will be integrating Air Force, Army, Naval and civilian radars.
• The IAF currently has five sector headquarters (nodes) of communication and the plan is to have four more, besides establishment of 10 sub-nodes and up-gradation of the entire system.
• As part of this, the new command and control system will be set up and integrated with the existing ground and air sensors and air defence systems.

International Affairs 

• PM Modi first Indian PM to visit Ireland in 60 years – An overview
• Mukesh Ambani India’s richest for 9th consecutive year: Forbes
• WADA inks MoU with China’s Sports Ministry to eliminate supply of PEDS

OECD releases International Migration Outlook 2015

• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released the International Migration Outlook 2015.
• In 2015, OECD countries and also some non member OECD countries are facing an unprecedented refugee Crisis. The permanent migration has increased when compared to the previous year.
• 2.4 lakh new Indian immigrants were moved to OECD countries in 2013 but the expatriation rate in 2013 was 192 only, the second lowest among the top 50 countries of origin for immigrants into OECD countries.
• One in ten new immigrants to developed countries in 2013 was from China. 4.4% of new migrants from India and was in fourth position after Poland and Romania.
• More number of Indian – origin doctors and nurses were migrated to US, followed by the UK.
• Total members of OECD: 34 Countries

Banking & Finance 

• SafePay: First anti-fraud system to use existing credit card readers
• RBS sells Indian private banking business to Sanctum Wealth management

Awards and Recognition

Hindi writer Dr Kamal Kishore Goenka conferred with 24th Vyaas Samman

• Hindi writer Dr Kamal Kishore Goenka was conferred with 24th Vyaas Samman for the year 2014. He was awarded for his work ‘Premchand ki Kahaniyon ka Kaal Kramanusaar Adhyayan’. 
• He was awarded a citation and a cash amount of 2.5 lakh rupees by the Hindi writer, Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari. 
• Vyaas Samman was founded by the KK Birla Foundation. It is presented to an outstanding literary work in Hindi.

Konte Venkata Narayana receives Skoch Order-of-Merit Award

• Konte Venkata Narayana, CMD of TSNPDCL has received the prestigious ‘Skoch Order-of-Merit Award’ for introducing the unique GPRS-enabled Integrated Spot Billing Project at the 41st Skoch Summit held at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi
• The Summit was inaugurated by M. Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister.
• The new billing system offers online bill payment through various modes. It enabled automatic updating of billing information. The elimination of meter reading suppressions, table readings and thus avoiding revenue loss to the Discom is one of the important features of this billing system.
• The Telangana State Northern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSNPDCL) would launch GPRS-enabled integrated spot billing system to cover 25 lakh consumers in both domestic and commercial category.
• The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has received the SKOCH Award for smart governance for its initiatives on UAN programme and transformation of social security agenda in India.

Odisha school girl wins award at Google Science Fair

• Lalita Prasida Sripada Srisai, a 13-year-old student from Koraput, Odisha wins ‘Community Impact Award’ at the prestigious Google Science Fair in California.
• She received 10, 000 USD as the prize money. She will also get the support from Google for one year in order to build her project successfully.
• She developed a low cost bio-absorbent based water purifier which functions mainly on waste corn cobs.
• Corn cobs have high mechanical strength, rigidity and also porosity. So the Corn cobs can absorb the contaminants like oxides of salts, detergent, oil, grease suspended particles, coloured dyes etc.,
• By using this bio-absorbent based water purifier, 70-80% of contaminants will be separated from the waste water.

Appointments & Resigns

Rahul Rawail resigns from India’s Oscar Selection Jury

• Filmmaker Rahul Rawail, a part of the 17-member jury that chose “Court” as India’s official entry for Oscars has resigned from his post.
• Recently, Court, a Marathi film directed by Chaitanye Tamhane was announced as India’s official entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the Oscars next year.
• After the announcement of India’s official entry to Oscar, Mr.Rahul Rawail has resigned from his post citing differences with Amol Palekar, Chairman of Film Federation of India (FFI).
• Rahul Rawail is well known for his films like Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya, Anjaam, Betaab and Love Story.

K M Singh New Chairman & Managing Director of NHPC

• K. M. Singh has been appointed as the Chairman & Managing Director of NHPC with immediate effect.
• NHPC is a state-run power producer.
• He is currently the Chief Executive Director of NHDC.
• Singh was recommended by Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) from a list of 12 contenders.

Rajat Sharma appointed as NBA president

•  Rajat Sharma has been reappointed as the President of News Broadcasters Association (NBA).
• He is the Chairman and Editor-in Chief of India TV,
• The News Broadcasters Association is a private association of different current affairs and news television broadcasters in India.
• The NBA was started in 2008.

Science & Technology

Anindya Dutta, Indian-origin scientist discovers new cancer gene mutations

• Anindya Dutta, Indian-origin scientist, professor at University of Virginia School of Medicine in the US and his team has identified two new cancer-causing gene mutations. 
• The newly discovered mutations in the MCM8 and MCM9 genes will respond to certain drugs which were already approved by US Food and Drug Administration to treat breast cancers. 
• Anindya Dutta said, MCM8 and MCM9 mutations could be revealed only through whole genome sequencing. And it is possible to design simple tests to identify these two new cancer-causing mutations in MCM8 and also in MCM9 genes.

Obituary

Swami Dayananda Saraswati passes away

• Swami Dayananda Saraswati, 85-year old, a teacher of Vedas and Upanishads passed away at his ashram in Rishikesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mourned the death of his guru, Swami Dayananda Saraswati.
• Swami Dayananda Saraswati and his guru Swami Chinmayananda set up Sandipani Sadhanalaya in Bombay to train people in Vedanta.
• Swami Dayananda Saraswati set up the Acharya Sabha and he had also contributed in Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in which hundreds of people learn Vedanta.