GK Power Capsule – November 2014
Dear Aspirants,
Most important current affairs news from the month of November 2014. So please read this GK Power Capsule carefully & prepare well to score good in upcoming exams.
- 9th G-20 Summit of major economies was held in Brisbane, Australia. The summit focused on promoting economic growth and set the target of boosting global growth by 2 percent in five years. The next summit will be hosted by Turkey in Antalya on 10 November 2015.
- 18th SAARC summit was held in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- 12th ASEAN-India Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. The summit was held on the sidelines of 25th ASEAN Summit. The Next ASEAN-India Summit will be held in Cambodia in 2015.
- 9th East Asia Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. The summit was held on the sidelines of the 25th ASEAN Summit.
- 83rd Interpol General Assembly was held at Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
- 25th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. Myanmar chaired the ASEAN summit for the first time.
- The International Buddhist Conference 2014 was held in Lumbini, Nepal.
- 7th Summit on the Global Agenda was held in UAE. The Summit on the Global Agenda for the year 2014 was organized by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the Government of the United Arab Emirates and Government of Dubai.
- 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit was held in Beijing, China. The summit was held under the theme of Shaping the Future through Asia-Pacific Partnership. The next APEC Summit will be held in Philippines in 2015.
- The World Economic Forum in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry hosted the India Economic Summit in New Delhi.
- 6th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) was held in New Delhi.
- India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) was held in New Delhi. The next session of the IRIGC-TEC will be held in Moscow in 2015.
- International Counter-Piracy Conference was held in Dubai.
- New Ministers –
- 1 Manohar Parrikar Defence Ministry
- 2 Suresh Prabhu Railways Ministry
- 3 Jagat Prakash Nadda Health Ministry
- 4 Ch. Birender Singh Rural Development
- 5 Bandaru Dattatreya Labour
- 6 Rajiv Pratap Rudy Skill Development
- 7 Dr. Mahesh Sharma Tourism
- Prasar Bharti announced to re-launch DD National with new tagline Doordarshan National – Desh Ka Apna Channel.
- Mithra Shakthi exercise: three week mock war drill between Special Forces of Indian and Sri Lankan Army.
- A Torpedo Recovery Vessel, TRV-72 of Indian Navy sank off the Visakhapatnam coast during a naval exercise.
- Sachin Tendulkar’s autobiography “Playing It My Way” was released.
- Sutirtha Bhattacharya will be the new Chairman and Managing Director of Coal India Limited.
- Actor Farhan Akhtar was appointed as UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia.
- Former Indian Police Service Officer K C Reddy was appointed as the member of United Nations probe panel on Gaza.
- Government appointed GS Sandhu as Chairman of National Chemical Weapon Convention.
- Anita Kapur (IRS) was appointed as the new chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes.
- The Italian physicist Fabiola Gianotti was appointed as first woman chief of CERN particle physics research centre.
- Rajiv Mehrishi took charge as Union Finance Secretary under the Union Ministry of Finance.
- Former Indian cricket captain Dilip Vengsarkar received the prestigious BCCI-instituted Colonel C K Nayudu Lifetime achievement award.
- Tamil superstar Rajinikanth was honoured with the centenary award for Indian Film Personality of the year 2014 at the 45th International Film Festival of India.
- Chintan, a non-government organisation was conferred the Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award, 2014.
- Steel Authority of India Chairman CS Verma was conferred with the IIM- JRD Tata Award for Excellence in Corporate leadership in Metallurgical Industries for the year 2014.
- Veteran classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj was conferred with the Sumitra Charat Ram Award 2014 for Lifetime Achievement.
- Neha Gupta was awarded with the prestigious International Children’s Peace Prize 2014.
- Radio Kashmir Jammu won prestigious Gandhian Philosophy and Public Service Broadcasting award 2014 for its programme Jeevan Rekha.
- President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the 49th Jnanpith Award on eminent Hindi poet Kedarnath Singh.
- The Darjeeling Zoo or the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park was selected for the prestigious International Award the Earth Heroes Award 2014.
- The Hockey India chief Narinder Batra was awarded the prestigious President’s Award by the International Hockey Federation at Morocco.
- Former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh received the Japan’s top national award The Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers 2014.
- The US President Barack Obama will be the Chief Guest at 66th India’s Republic Day celebrations 2015. He will be the first US President to attend the Republic Day Parade of India.
- Neel Mukherjee was in news because his book Lives of Others was shortlisted for Costa Book Awards.
- Union Government nominated Dr. Hasmukh Adhia as a Director on the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India.
- US Navy SEAL commando Robert O’Neill who shot Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan hideout in Abbottabad on 2 May 2011 revealed his identity.
- Indian-American Nikki Haley won second term as South Carolina Governor.
- Mallikarjun Kharge, a leader of Congress in Lok Sabha was inducted into the three-member Chief Information Commissioner Selection committee.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited to Fiji. He is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the Pacific countries after Indira Gandhi who visited in 1981.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Australia as part of G-20 summit and bilateral summit with Australia. He became the first Indian Prime Minister to address the Australian Parliament.
- Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited Israel to discuss bilateral issues including strengthening security ties and fight against terror.
- President Pranab Mukherjee visited Bhutan. During his visit, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Nalanda University.
- Oscar award winner Mike Nichols died.
- Legendary Kathak danseuse Sitara Devi died.
- Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Murli Deora died after a prolonged illness.
- Mathematician Alexander Grothendieck died in France.
- Baiji in Iraq was in news because Iraqi authorities claimed that Government forces have recaptured the strategic northern town of Baiji from Islamic State for Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi adopted Jayapur village in Varanasi under Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY).
- Anbar in Iraq was in news because of massacre of 322 people of Iraqi Al-Bu Nimr tribe by ISIS militant group.
- Child Rights and You (CRY) launched Project Unlearn with an aim to end child labour and encourage children to go to school on 14 November 2014 on eve of Children’s Day.
- Mumbai recorded 16.4 million internet users surpassing Delhi and Kolkata. Delhi recorded 12.15 million internet users and Kolkata recorded 6.27 million internet users.
- Akash surface-to-air missile was test fired by the Indian Air Force from Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near Balasore, Odisha. The missile is a medium range surface-to-air anti-aircraft defence system with a strike range of 25 km.
- 4th India-China Joint Training Exercise Hand-in- Hand 2014 began at Aundh Military Station in Pune, Maharashtra.
- Surface-to-surface nuclear-capable Dhanush ballistic missile was test-fired from a naval ship off the Odisha coast with strike range of 350 kilometer.
- Prithvi-II surface-to-surface missile was test fired at Chandipur, Odisha. Prithvi-II was developed indigenously which is nuclear capable and has a strike range of 350 km.
- India test fired nuclear-capable Agni-II strategic ballistic missile with a range of 2000 Km. It was conducted from Wheeler Island, Odisha.
- President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated India International Trade Fair 2014 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. Partner country of the trade fair is South Africa. Focus Country of the fair is Thailand while the focus state is Delhi.
- Deepak Gupta was appointed as chairman of Union Public Service Commission.
- Securities Exchange Board of India on announced to de-recognise Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE) on the allegations of serious irregularities in its functioning.
- Railways, one of the biggest consumers of energy, is moving towards harnessing green power with a 26 MW windmill proposed to be built in Rajasthan.
- Klaus Iohannis won Romanian Presidential elections.
- Kerala and Goa have become first states in the country with every household having at least one bank account. In addition, Goa, Chandigarh, Puducherry and Lakshadweep and three districts of Gujarat- Porbandar, Mehasana, Gandhi Nagar, have also covered all households under PMJDY with at least one bank account.
- Ratan Tata has been appointed to the board of Interpol Foundation.
- Union Home Minister and Lucknow MP Rajnath Singh has adopted Beti village in the district under the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojna.
- The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) cleared the decks for the Indian army’s proposal for 814 155mm/52 caliber mounted guns systems (MGS), at a cost of R15,750 crore ($2.55 billion).
- Additional Director R K Dutta will now head the CBI probe in the 2G spectrum scam after the Supreme Court directed the agency Chief Ranjit Sinha to recuse from the investigation.
- The work on the much-talked about Turkmenistan– Afghanistan–Pakistan–India pipeline (TAPI) would start in 2015. The steering committee meeting for the cross country pipeline was held at Ashgabat in Turkmenistan.
- Switzerland agreed to join the global framework that allows automatic exchange of tax information.
- Government re-launched Kisan Vikas Patra. Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the KVP would help poor, gullible investors to channelize their savings towards a trusted government scheme instead of some Ponzi schemes. KVP would be a bearer instrument without name of the holder. KVP will be available in the denomination of R1,000, R5,000, R10,000 and R50,000. It has no upper ceiling for investment and can be encashed after a lock-in period of 30 months. Amount invested in KVP would be doubled in 100 months. The KVP certificates will be sold through post offices initially, but they will later on be made available to the investing public through designated branches of nationalised banks. However, there won’t be any tax benefit for investment in KVP.
- The G20 leaders committed to put in place a mechanism for automatic exchange of tax information between member countries by 2017.
- Indian Railways has identified toilets as one of the 17 special areas where 100 per cent FDI can bring about major investments. Earlier, the government had relaxed the FDI norms permitting 100 per cent investment in rail projects, such as high-speed trains, suburban service, dedicated freight corridors, freight and passenger terminals.
- Government fixed the subsidy for domestic LPG at Rs 40 per kg (or Rs 568 per cylinder of 14.2 kg) to be shared between government and public sector oil companies.
- Asia Pacific countries agreed to cooperate on the extradition of corrupt officials, enhance asset recovery efforts and establish an anti-corruption transparency network to share intelligence on graft. The network, called the APEC Network of Anti-Corruption Authorities and Law Enforcement Agencies (ACT-NET), is the first such network that members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group had worked to set up.
- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government is planning to bring down its stake in public sector banks to 52 per cent so as to meet Rs 3 lakh crore capital requirement.
- Arundhati Bhattacharya, the Chairperson of country’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI), has been named as the most-powerful woman in business in India by Fortune Magazine. ICICI Bank’s Chanda Kochhar and Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank follow Bhattacharya at the second and the third place respectively.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi re-constituted a high-level climate panel and dropped well known environmentalist Sunita Narain and top industry leader Ratan Tata from the council. TERI chairperson R K Pachauri, economist Nitin Desai and retired diplomat Chandrasekhar Das gupta were retained by Modi as nongovernment members.
- Japanese company Soft Bank, kick-starting its plans to put in about $10 billion in India announced investments in home-grown market place Snapdeal and popular mobile app for cab bookings Ola.
- Modi announced the operationalisation of the $100 million line of credit for Vietnam’s defence purchases.
- Union Tribal Welfare Minister Jual Oram launched the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana (VKY), aimed at improving the infrastructure and human development indices of the tribal population.
- BSE is planning to make a foray into commodity exchange business, now dominated by Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and NCDEX.
- The governments of India and Russia have agreed that BrahMos missile will be exported to a list of mutually agreeable countries for defensive purposes.
- Union government submitted, in a sealed cover, a list of 627 Indians holding black money abroad in Supreme Court.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Mozambique for cooperation in the field of oil and gas.
- The Reserve Bank of India has raised the limit for urban co-operative banks (UCBs) to sanction loan against gold collateral to Rs.2 lakh from Rs.1 lakh at present.
- Education Ministers and officials of eight SAARC countries have resolved to collaborate on increased use of information technology and improving the quality of education.
- Under pressure from India over the safety of United Nations Peacekeeping forces, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has set up a 14-member panel, including an Indian to review peacekeeping operations worldwide. The panel is headed by Jose Ramos-Horta.
- Vijay Laxman Kelkar has been appointed as Chairperson of the Finance Ministry’s think tank National Institute of Public Finance & Policy (NIPFP). He replaces the former Reserve Bank Governor C. Rangarajan.
- For the first time India and Russia have agreed on negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India & the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan & Russia.
- India will extend Visa on arrival facility to Russian businessmen at 18 airports in the country.
- The two-day conference on Asian elephants concluded in Guwahati with a resolve to establish a regional think tank with nodal officers from Indian, Bhutan and Myanmar.
- BJP legislator, Laxmikant Parsekar, was sworn in as the eleventh Chief Minister of Goa.
- Chinese President Xi Jinping on announced $40- billion fund to build mega Silk Road projects criss-crossing Asia.
- Lt. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar has taken over as the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
- Gujarat has become the first State to make voting compulsory in local bodies.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a new Aadhaar-based digital life certificate for pensioners ‘Jeevan Pramaan’ that will allow self-certification and benefit over a crore pensioners in the country.
- The members of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members have agreed to initiate the formation of a free trade area in the Asia-Pacific — a vision steered by China, which competes with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) initiative of the United States.
- India’s second mission to Mars could be launched between 2018 and 2020.
- E. Sreedharan has been appointed as one man committee by the Ministry of Railways to suggest a “proper system and procedure to ensure proper accountability and transparency” at the level of General Manager and other functionaries for taking all commercial decisions.
- The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) cleared the long-pending proposal of HDFC Bank to hike foreign holding in the bank to 74 per cent.
- Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan was shortlisted for candidates for BRICS’ New Development Bank president.
- Mr. Modi said the PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) and OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) status would be merged ahead of the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas to be held from January 7 in Ahmedabad.
- Japan’s economy unexpectedly slid into recession as housing and business investment declined following a sales tax hike, further clouding the outlook for the global economy.
- Twelve years after it was constituted, the Nanavati Commission of Enquiry probing the 2002 post-Godhra riots submitted its final report to Chief Minister Anandiben Patel.
- Forty years of pioneering work culminating in the successful launch of India’s first Mars orbiter this September has won the Indian Space Research Organisation the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2014.
- India’s Pacific Ocean outreach gained traction with the announcement of a slew of lines of credit and development assistance totaling $ 80 million for Fiji and a visa-on-arrival for all the 14 island countries in the region during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit.
- SEBI revamped the ‘Prohibition of Insider Trading’ regulations with more stringent measures, aligning its norms with international practices.
- INS Vikrant — the county’s first aircraft carrier — has finally faded away into history. The Centre said it was difficult to maintain the vessel. In March, the Indian Navy sold Vikrant to a Mumbai-based ship breaking company for Rs. 63 crore.
- The former Supreme Court judge Chandramauli Kumar Prasad has been selected to be the next Chairman of the Press Council of India.
- ING Vysya Bank decided to merge with Kotak Mahindra Bank, creating the fourth largest private sector bank in the country.
- India’s Mars mission Mangalyaan, developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has been listed among the 25 best innovations of 2014 by the Time magazine. “Nobody gets Mars right on the first try. The U.S. didn’t, Russia didn’t, the Europeans didn’t. But on September 24, India did,” the magazine said.
