1. Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee receive Bharat
Ratna Award
i. Former
Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee conferred with Bharat Ratna, the
country’s highest civilian award, by President Pranab Mukherjee.
ii. President Pranab Mulherjee drove
to Vajpayee’s residence at Krishna Memon marg in Lutyens’ Delhi and presented
to the ailing BJP leader the prestigious award, the country’s highest civilian
honour.
iii. The event,
which was attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and Home Minister Rajnath Singh along with some close family members.
iv. Vajpayee,
who was Prime Minister from 1998 to 2004, and has faded from public life due to
age-related illness, is lauded as a statesman and has been often described as
the moderate face of BJP.
2. Gandhi Peace Price for 2014 goes to ISRO
i. India’s space agency — Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has
been selected for the Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2014.
ii. The ISRO is engaged in making space technology a catalyst of development
to bring about societal transformation. Through the years, the organization has
upheld its mission of bringing space to the service of the common man and in
the service of the nation.
iii. The ISRO — one of the sixth largest space agencies of the
world has been engaged in making space technology a catalyst of development to
bring about societal transformation.
iv. An official release said, the decision to this effect was taken by
the Jury for the Prize which met under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister
Narendra Modi.
v. The Gandhi Peace Prize for social, economic and political
transformation through non-violence was instituted in 1995. The Award comprises
an amount of Rs. one crore and a citation.
3. John Nash won Abel Prize
2015
i. Nobel Laureate
John F Nash Jr. won the Abel Prize 2015 for his work on partial differential
equations.
ii. He will share the
Prize with Louis Nirenberg, Professor Emeritus at New York University’s Courant
Institute of Mathematical Sciences. They both will share the prize money of
760000 US dollar.
iii. The prize was
announced by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters.
About the Abel
Prize
The Abel Prize was
named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, which was established in
2001 by the Government of Norway and complements the Holberg Prize in the
humanities.
The prize is annually
presented by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians.
4. RBI bars Pioneer Urban Cooperative Bank from doing
business
i. The Reserve Bank of India has barred Lucknow-based
Pioneer Urban Cooperative Bank from lending and accepting deposits for the next
six months as the bank has turned weak.
ii. The
sector regulator did not cancel the banking licence as yet but directed it to
take prior written clearance for doing normal banking business.
iii. The
bank will however be allowed to pay to a depositor a sum not exceeding Rs 1,000
of the total balance in every savings bank or current account or any other deposit
account. The bank will be able to renew the existing term deposits on maturity.
iv. The
restrictions on banking business will continue till financial position
improves, RBI said, adding that it would review the situation periodically.
5. RBI revises regulations for NBFCs
i. The Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) has revised regulations for non-banking finance lenders by
directing them to get themselves rated by March 2016.
ii. In the revised regulatory
framework on NBFCs, RBI further said, those asset finance companies (AFCs)
failing to achieve investment grade ratings by the end of March 2016, should
not accept fresh public deposits and renewing existing ones.
iii. In such an event, all existing
deposits should runoff to maturity and NBFCs should report to the concerned
RBI’s Regional Offices within 15 days.
iv. The RBI has also tweaked rules
in respect of net-owned funds, and pegged the mandatory requirement at 2 crore
rupees for all NBFCs and has given time till April 2017 to comply.
6. First goods
train flagged off from Lumding to Silchar in Assam
i. The Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu flagged off the
first goods train from Lumding to Silchar in Assam, through video conferencing
at a function in New Delhi.
ii. Union government had floated other rail projects to
provide rail connectivity in the NE states of Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura
which are expected to be completed by March 2016.
These
rail projects are: i. Badarpur-Kumarghat
project of 118 kilometer
ii. Arunachal-Jiribam
(50 kilometer)
iii. Baraigram-Dullabchera
(29 kilometer)
iv. Karimganj-Mahishana
including Karimganj bypass (13.50 kilometer)
7. Book title
Faces and Places written by Prof. Deepak Nayyar released
i. Book title Faces and Places written by Prof.
Deepak Nayyar released by Vice President of India M Hamid Ansari.
ii. Prof. Deepak Nayyar is a noted economist and former
Vice Chancellor of Delhi University.
iii. The book brings together a selection of the author’s
photographs that have been taken over the past four decades.
8. Ajay Shankar
Committee to review PPP Cell functioning: Ministry of Railways
i. The Ministry of Railways appointed Ajay Shankar head of committee to
review the performance of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) cell functioning
under the Railway Board.
ii. Ajay
Shankar is a former Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion
(DIPP) under Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry
iii. The Committee will recommend measures to make the cell
more effective, customer friendly and result oriented.
9. KM Mani is new
chairman of the Empowered Committee of State FM’S on GST
i. Union Finance Ministry appointed Kerala
Finance Minister KM Mani, as the Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State
Finance Ministers on Goods and Services Tax (GST).
ii. The post was vacant since the former
Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Finance Minister Abdul Rahim quit the position
after the defeat of National Conference in the J&K Assembly elections held
in December 2014.
iii. GST is intended to be implemented from
01 April 2016 as announced by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his
2015-16 budget speech.
iv. KM Mani has been a member of the
Kerala Legislature consecutively for the last 50 years and holds the record of
presenting the largest number of state budgets.
10. Delhi HC set
up commercial courts for speedy disposal of cases
i. The Delhi high court has became the first
court to set up dedicated commercial divisions within it, in line with
recommendation of the Law Commission of India.
ii. Chief Justice of Delhi HC G Rohini designated four benches to act as
commercial courts.
iii. Out
of this, two single judge benches with original jurisdiction will deal with the
suits involving commercial disputes relating to intellectual property rights,
arbitration, insurance, banking, taxation, company cases etc.
iv. The
other two benches with appellate jurisdiction will hear appeals against the
commercial disputes cases.
11. India & ADB signed $ 300 million loan deal to improve
connectivity in NE Region
i. The Union Ministry of Finance and the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) signed a loan agreement for 300 million US dollars to improve road
connectivity along the North Bengal-North Eastern (NB-NE) Region.
ii. The funds will
be utilized to improve road connectivity and efficiency of the international
trade corridors by expanding roads in NB-NE region of the country.
12. Clarke to retire from ODI cricket after 2015 World
Cup final
i. Australia captain
Michael Clarke will quit one-day cricket after 2015 World Cup summit clash
against New Zealand, however he will continue to play Test cricket.
ii. Clarke, 33, made the
announcement at the pre-match press conference on the eve of the final at the
MCG tomorrow.
iii. He began his ODI career
in 2003 and led Australia in 73 ODIs, of which Australia
won 49.
iv. In 108 Tests he played
so far, Clarke has scored 8432 runs at an average of 50.79 with 28 hundreds and
27 half centuries.
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