01. Current Affairs – April, 15

1. 01 Apr - Odisha Day, also known as Utkala Dibasa in memory of formation of state on 1 April                1936.

2. 02 Apr - Mahavir Jayanti.

3. 05 Apr - Easter Day. (Marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, First Sunday after                   the full moon that occurs on or after 21 March).

4. 05 Apr - Indian National Maritime Day. On this day in 1919, navigation history was created when SS Loyalty, the first ship of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company, journeyed to the United Kingdom. The National Maritime Day was first celebrated on 5th April, 1964.

5. 07 Apr - World Health Day Celebrated with Theme - "From farm to plate, make food safe."

6. 11 April - India's National Safe Motherhood Day

7. 13th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice held in Doha(Qatar). Indian delegation was led by Minister of Law and Justice D V Sadanad Gowda.

8. 17 April - World Hemophilia day. Started in 1989 to honor Frank Schnabel the founder of WFH (World Federation of Hemophilia).

9. 18 April - World Heritage Day.

10. 2015 Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report (GMR) released with theme ‘Education for All 2000-2015 Achievements and Challenges. 

1. Report highlighted achievements made by India in reducing the Out of School Children and achieving the gender parity at the elementary level thereby contributing to the global progress in the EFA goals.

11. 20th National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOSDCP) and Preparedness meeting held in Goa.

12. 22 Apr - Earth Day.It was first celebrated in 1970. Theme for 2015 is It’s Our Turn to Lead.

13. 24th Yudhvir Foundation Memorial Award will be given to Prajwala founder Sunitha Krishnan for her work in rescue, restoration and rehabilitation of victims in trafficking and her support for HIV patients.

14. 25 Apr - World Malaria Day. Theme for 2015 is Invest in the future: Defeat malaria.

15. 27 April - Freedom day of south africa. It celebrates freedom and commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994. 

16. 27 April - King’s Day of the Netherlands (Also known as Koningsdag). The date marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander.

17. 27 April - National Day of Togo (West African Country).

18. 27th meeting of Northern Zonal Council comprising of states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chandigarh held in Delhi with Home Minister Rajnath Singh as chairman.

19. 29 April - World Dance Day

20. 45-day long annual fishing ban in territorial waters of Eastern Coastal Zone of India (including Andaman & Nicobar Islands) started to safeguard fish in their breeding season.

21. 5th meeting of the SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) Health Ministers held in New Delhi.

22. Adiel Yosef, a 22-year-old Indian-origin soldier in Israeli army received Presidential Medal of Excellence by Israel Government.

23. Apr 14, 2015 - 124th Birth Anniversary of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.

24. A four-day International Conference on ‘Low Temperature Science and Biotechnological Advances’ held in Delhi as an attempt to assess the present status and to formulate future plans on low temperature science and biotechnology in various Asia and other continents. Conference was organised by ICAR-NBPGR, National Academy Agricultural Sciences, India in collaboration with Society for Low Temperature Biology (SLTB), UK and Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Kew, UK.

25. Actor Anil Kapoor conferred with Deenanath Mangeshkar Award 2015 along with Marathi actor Dilip Prabhavalkar. Rishi Kapoor and Zakir Husain were conferred with this award in 2014.

26. Actor Shah Rukh Khan honoured with Dadasaheb Phalke Film Foundation Award 2015 for movie Happy New Year.

27. Agni III Surface-to-Surface ballistic missile successfully test-fired from Wheelar Isalnd off the Odisha coast in the Bay of Bengal. It has range of 3,500 km- 5,000 km.

28. Allan Donald resigned as bowling coach of South Africa Cricket team.

29. American Singer Jack Ely (famous for song Louie Louie) passed away.

30. Andhra Pradesh Cabinet approved Amaravathi as new capital city of the state.

1. Andhra pradesh was Bifurcated in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and Erstwhile Capital Hyderabad went with Telengana.

31. Andhra Pradesh Government appointed Chadalavada Krishnamurthy as Chairman of TTD (Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Board).

32. Andhra Pradesh Government constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Ravishankar Ayyanar to probe Chittoor firing Case.

33. Andhra Pradesh government signed MoU with IISL Company for replacing streetlights in 13 municipalities with LED lights and maintain for seven years.

34. Apr 21 - Civil Services Day (Ninth).

1. On this occasion, Income Tax Department has been awarded the ‘Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration’ for ‘Easy Tax Compliance through Quality Service. 

35. Apr 23, 2015 - World Book and Copyright Day. For the year 2015, UNESCO designated Incheon, South Korea as the World Book Capital 2015 for its programme to promote reading among people and underprivileged sections of the population. It was first celebrated in 1995.

36. Apr 24 - National Panchayati Raj Diwas.

37. April 24- Women’s Political Empowerment Day in India. The Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi has been celebrating April 24- as Women”s Political Empowerment Day since 1994.

38. Arachnologists found rare spiders belonging to Sparassidae and Salticidae families in Kerala.

39. Archana Girish Kamath and Anezka Ilcikova, the Indo-Czech Republic pair won cadet girls’ doubles table tennis title at the French junior and cadet open defeating French pair of Lucie Gauthier and Leili Mostafavi.

40. Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) signed MoU with M/s Motivation U.K for working together to produce affordable wheel chairs having compliance to WHO guidelines.

41. As per a report by Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), There are thirty one countries in the world which generate electricity from nuclear source. India is ranked 13th in terms of generation and at 7th position in terms of number of reactors in operation.

42. As per recent Census 2011 Data released by the Government, Indians are now getting married at higher age than a decade ago with a decline in fertility.

1. Female mean age at marriage has increased from 18.3 to 19.3 years, whereas the increase in male is from 22.6 to 23.3 years during Census 2001-11.

2. Proportion of divorced has marginally increased. Proportion of married women to total number of women is 49.9% in 2011 as against 47.7% in 2001. For males, it is 46% in 2011 as against 43.6% in 2001.

3. On fertility, it is observed that fertility rate at national level has declined from 2.5 to 2.2 during 2001-11.

43. Asian Banker Achievement Award 2015 -

1. Core Banking (Mid-Sized Bank) : ING Vysya and FIS

2. Core Banking (Emerging Bank) : Kanbawza (KBZ) Bank and Oracle Financial Services Software Limited

3. Corporate Payment : Axis Bank and Arteria Technologies

4. HR System : Axis Bank, Cognizant Technology Services, Mobitrail and Tejora Technologies

5. Outsourcing (New Bank): Bharatiya Mahila Bank and FIS

6. Technology Leadership Achievement : Amit Sethi, Chief Information Officer, Axis Bank

7. ATM and Kiosks: Cathay United Bank & NCR System, Taiwan

8. Branch Automation: Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Avaya Hong Kong and GRG Banking Solutions

9. Cloud Based Project: Philippine Business Bank and IBM

10. CRM : IndusInd Bank and Talisma Corporationt

11. Data & Analytics : KB Kookmin Bank and IBM Korea

12. Financial Supply Chain: China Merchants Bank

13. Lending Platform Implementation : Cathay United Bank and IBM Taiwan

14. Mobile Banking : China Merchants Bank

15. Multi-Channel : Bank of China (Hong Kong) and Avaya Hong Kong

16. Outsourcing (Existing Bank): Bank of Queensland and Hewlett-Packard

17. Retail Payment : Hong Leong Bank and Silverlake Mobility EcoSystem

18. Smart Branch : ANZ and GTSO New Zealand

19. Social Media Engagement : DBS and NCS

20. Treasury Management System : Bank of Communications, Misys and KMerit Technology (Suzhou)

21. Outstanding Technology Implementation : DBS and Infosys

44. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop Visited India.

45. BJP leader Yashwant Sinha conferred with Officer of the Legion of Honour for valuable contribution to thought on international issues, it is the highest French civilian honor.

46. Bank of Baroda (BoB) tied-up with UAE Exchange to offer instant money transfer facility to its Non-resident Indian (NRI) customers that will allow customers to send money to their desired bank accounts in BoB in India in Minutes.

47. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) commissioned a 600 MW thermal unit at Dhabra in Janjgir Champa District of Chhattisgarh. 

48. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) commissioned fourth 600 MW thermal unit of OP Jindal Super Thermal Power Project (STPP) Extension in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh.

49. Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan honoured by Outstanding Contribution to Cinema award at 5th Asian Awards in London -  

1. Previous winners in this category included Irrfan Khan (2014), Anupam Kher (2013) and Yash Chopra (2011).

2. List of Awardees

Category   Winners

Founders Award Dr. Amar Bose, Founder of Bose Corporation

Entrepreneur of the Year Jack Ma, Founder & CEO of Alibaba

Outstanding Achievement in Cinema Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood actor

Outstanding Achievement in Sport Kumar Sangakkara, Cricketer of Sri Lanka

Business Leader of the Year The Hinduja Brothers 

Outstanding Achievement in Television Sanjeev Bhaskar, Comedian, actor and broadcaster

Outstanding Achievement in Art & Design John Rocha, Designer

Outstanding Achievement in Science & Technology Sir Tejinder Singh Virdee, Experimental particle physicist

Outstanding Achievement in Music Zayn Malik, English singer and songwriter

50. Book My Little Epiphanies has been written by Ms. Aisha Chaudhary and released by Vice president Hamid Ansari.

51. Book Suleiman Charitra written by Kalyana Malla launched.

52. Brijbhushan Sharan Singh re-elected as president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for four years.

53. Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved Maharashtra State Co-operative Cotton Growers Marketing Federation (MSCCGMFL) to undertake Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations for Cotton.

54. Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved extension of 2 years for completion of projects sanctioned till March 2012 under Sub-Mission on Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) components of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

55. Calbuco volcano of Chile erupted after 42 years.

56. Central Board Of Excise and Customs Awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration for 2012-13.

57. Chhurim Sherpa of Nepal became first woman to climb the Mount Everest summit twice in a week.

58. China and Pakistan signed an agreement on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) plan worth 46 billion USD. As part of the agreement, China will provide up to 37 billion USD in investment for energy projects to generate 16400 MW of power and Concessional loans will cover nearly 10 billion USD infrastructure projects.

59. China quashed bid of Taiwan to become a full member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for lack of appropriate name.

60. China's Minister of Religious Affairs Mr. Wang Zuoan Visited India.

61. Colin Barnett, Premier of Western Australia Visited India.

62. Committee headed by Dr. Hari Gautam for recommending restructuring and strengthening of UGC (University Grants Commission) submitted report to Ministry of Human Resource Development. 

63. Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI (M) elected Sitaram Yechury as fifth general secretary of the party.

64. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to deepen partnership between Indian companies and the bank in those countries where the bank has operations.

65. Conference of State Environment and Forest Ministers held in New Delhi.

66. Cricket South Africa (CSA) announced to start Africa T20 Cup to promote the game and nurture young talent in the continent featuring Zimbabwe, Kenya, Namibia, hosts South Africa and 12 CSA affiliates.

1. The tournament will be a World Cup-style competition, consisting of four pools of four teams each with the winners of each pool advancing to the semi-finals and eventually to the final.

67. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar Visited Korea.

68. Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) won prestigious Golden Peacock National Quality Award for the year 2015.

69. Dena Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India to provide insurance cover to all Aadhaar-linked savings account holders of the bank.

70. Department of Space, Department of Land Resources (DoLR), Ministry of Rural Development signed an MoU on development of Web Geo Portal 'Shrishti' and Mobile App 'Drishti' for Monitoring of IWMP (Integrated Watershed Management Programme) watersheds.

71. Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) fined Cadbury India Limited with 570 crore rupees for excise duty.

72. Earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on Richter scale struck Nepal. Reporting of Loss of lives of more than 5000 People. Tremors also felt across India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

73. Eminent historian Christopher Alan Bayly (UK) died.

74. Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) suspended the 1000 rupees minimum monthly pension scheme (EPS)-95 ) from April 2015 and will hit about 32 lakh pensioners.Government notified resuming the scheme with financial aid from the government.

75. Ernst & Young (EY) released report Global IPO Trends 2015 with focus on global trends in Initial Public Offerings (IPO) in the Quarter 1 Q1 of 2015

1. Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) reached top in Initial Public Offerings (IPO) by raising 5.4 billion USD. Followed by Madrid SE (5.3 billion USD), New York SE (3.5 billion USD), London SE (3.4 billion USD), Bursa Malaysia SE (3 billion USD) and Swiss SE (2.5 billion USD).

76. FM Global Resilience Index 2015 -

1. Out of the 130 countries and regions assessed Norway topped the list in terms of business resilience with Switzerland and Netherland Following.

2. Venezuela is at 130th (Last Place).

3. India is at 119th position in the 2015 Index compared to 112th rank in 2014 Index.

77. Finland’s opposition Centre Party led by Juha Sipila won General Elections. Juha Sipila will be 44th Prime Minister of Finland.

78. Foreign Minister of Spain, Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo visited India. He Proposed to co-operate in developing Delhi as global and smart city.

79. Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 announced by Minister of Commerce & Industry Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman -

1. The new five year Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-20 provides a framework for increasing exports of goods and services as well as generation of employment and increasing value addition in the country, in keeping with the “Make in India”.

2. Introduces two new schemes, namely “Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS)” for export of specified goods to specified markets and “Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS)” for increasing exports of notified services.

3. For grant of rewards under MEIS, the countries have been categorized into 3 Groups, whereas the rates of rewards under MEIS range from 2% to 5%. Under SEIS the selected Services would be rewarded at the rates of 3% and 5%.

80. Former Chief Minister of Odisha Janaki Ballabh Patnaik died.

81. Fourteenth (14th) edition of Indo-French naval exercise VARUNA started in Goa.

82. Fourth Lighthouse Museum of India to be opened at Kannur (Kerala).

1. Other three lighthouses museums - Alappuzha (Kerala), Chennai and Mahabalipuram (TamilNadu).

83. General Muhammadu Buhari of All Progressives Congress (APC) party won Presidential Elections of Nigeria.

84. Georgia won Women’s World Team Chess Championship by defeating China in China.

85. Global Rating Agency Moody's forecasted Indian economy will grow at 7.5 percent in 2015. This growth rate is marginally higher compared with 7.2 percent in 2014.

1. The growth projections come after Moody’s revised India’s sovereign ratings outlook to positive (Baa3) from stable. Another ratings agency, Fitch, had reaffirmed its stable outlook on India.

86. Global community pledged financial support of 3.8 billion USD for crisis hit Syria at the third International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria held in Kuwait city (Kuwait).

87. Google India won Randstad Award 2015 for Most Attractive Employer in India with Sony India as runner-up. Other Awards were

1. Manufacturing - Tata Steel

2. FMCG - P&G

3. Automobile - Honda India

4. Microsoft India has been inducted into the Hall of Fame category this year for winning the coveted Randstad Award title for four consecutive years.

5. Randstad Awards are given each year to encourage best practices for talent attraction and to identify the best ‘Employer Brand’ in the country.

88. Governmenrt approved Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for entering into an agreement with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka for extending $1.1 billion as a special Currency swap outside the Framework on Currency Swap Arrangement for SAARC Member Countries.

1. India has a Framework on Currency Swap Arrangement for SAARC Member Countries since 2012. The facility is available to all SAARC member countries with a floor of $100 million and ceiling of $ 400 million within an overall limit of $ 2 billion and is valid till November 14, 2015.

89. Government allowed Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to invest 5 % of its corpus in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to bring around five thousand crore rupees into the stock markets during fiscal 2015-16.

90. Government allowed National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to issue Tax Free Infrastructure Bonds of Rs. 24000 crore and Capital Gain Tax Exemption Bonds of Rs. 4000 crore in the financial year 2015-16.

91. Government announced to start toll-free helpline for tuberculosis patients to enable them to reach out to medical care by government with ease.

92. Government approved NCAOR (National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research) 's acquisition of A Polar Research Vehicle with cost 1050 Crore Rupees for Research in Antartica, Artic and Southern Ocean Region.

93. Government approved signing of a shipping agreement between India and Jordan for strengthening cooperation and to provide sustained mutual assistance and advice on merchant shipping and other related maritime matters.

94. Government approved spending of about one lakh crore on urban development under two new urban missions over the next five years namely Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation of 500 cities (AMRUT) with outlays of Rs.48,000 crore and Rs.50,000 crores respectively.

95. Government cancelled licences of nearly 9,000 Non-Governmental Organisations for violation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) due to non filing annual returns for the 2009 - 2011.

96. Government decided to link interest rates of State PFs (General Provident Fund and other similar funds), Superannuation and Gratuity Funds for the FY 2015-16 to Public Provident Fund (PPF) rates and fix the rates 8.7% per annum applicable to the following.

1. The General Provident Fund (Central Services)

2. The Contributory Provident Fund (India).

3. The All India Service Provident Fund

4. The State Railway Provident Fund.

5. The General Provident Fund (Defence Services).

6. The Indian Ordnance Provident Fund.

7. The Indian Ordnance Factories Workmen’s Provident Fund

8. The Indian Naval Dockyard Workmen’s Provident Fund.

9. The Defence Services Officers Provident Fund

10. The Armed Forces Personnel Provident Fund.

1. Recently, Government announced to keep interest rates for PPF and other Small Savings Schemes intact. Note that interest rates for 5 year Senior citizen Saving Scheme and Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme were increased from 9.2 to 9.3% and 9.1 to 9.2% for welfare of girl child and senior citizens.

97. Government extended Tourist Visa scheme to 31 more countries, bringing the total number of countries under the scheme up to 76.

98. Government extended controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to almost entire state of Arunachal Pradesh due to serious law and order situation in the state.

99. Government extended deadline for rolling out National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 by six months to help remaining states adopt and implement the law as soon as possible.

100. Government has set up committee headed by Ajay Shankar to examine the possibility of replacing multiple prior permissions with pre-existing regulatory mechanism.