Tuesday, 12 May 2015

05. Current Affairs – April, 15

236.    Renowned Hindi poet Kailash Vajpeyi Passed Away.

237.    Researchers at Stanford University (USA) created an aluminium smartphone battery that charges in only one minute.

238.    Reserve Bank of India approved amalgamation of ING Vysya Bank with Kotak Mahindra Bank with effect from 1 April  2015.

239.    Ri Su Yong, the Foreign Minister of North Korea, visited India.

240.    Royal Dutch Shell Limited (Netherlands) acquired BG Group (Britain) for about 70 billion USD to gain edge in the race to build market share for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

241.    Russia and Argentina signed agreements on economic and energy co-operation during Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to Moscow. Agreements Included -
1.       Russia will finance the hydroelectric plant in Argentina’s Neuquen River.
2.       Russia’s Rosatom nuclear corp will build a new reactor at Argentina’s Atucha 3 nuclear power plant.

242.    Russia lifted ban on delivery of S-300 Missile System to Iran in the back drop of an agreement reached on 2 April 2015 between P5+1, the EU and Iran to prepare the final draft of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by 30 June 2015.
1.       Under the agreement, Iran agreed to stop developing nuclear weapons in return for lifting economic sanctions imposed on it by the international community.

243.    S.K. Bhagat is appointed as Additional Director General in Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar appointed as Additional Director General in Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

244.    Sangeeta Bhatia, Indian-origin scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in USA won prestigious 2015 Heinz Award in Technology, Economy, and Employment category in 20th Heinz Awards for her work in tissue engineering and disease detection and developing artificial human microlivers for drug testing. Other Winners Are -
1.Category Awardee Arts and Humanities category       Roz Chast (Illustrator and prolific cartoonist) Environment category Dr. Frederica Perera Human Condition organization Team Rubicon)     William McNulty and Jacob Wood (Founders of the nonprofit Public Policy Dr. Aaron Wolf (Professor at Oregon State University)

245.    Sania Mirza (India) and Martina Hingis (Swiss) won WTA Family Circle Cup doubles title beating Australian-Croatian  pair of Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak.
1.       Sania Mirza became first female tennis player from India to achieve the world number one rank in doubles.

246.    Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz appointed his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef as Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister.

247.    Search Engine Google signed a strategic partnership with consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to target Digital India Projects and large enterprise deals to push itself into large e-governance projects and improve the sales for its cloud services in India.

248.    Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) raised transaction limit in exchange traded currency derivatives to 15 million USD for both foreign and domestic investors from Earlier limit of 10 million USD.

249.    Seoul (capital of South Korea) awarded the title of Global Earth hour Capital 2015 on winning Earth Hour City Challenge (EHCC) of World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

250.    Seychelles (East African Island Nation) became 161st Member of WTO (World Trade Organization).

251.    Social Progress Index (SPI) 2015 by USA's non-profit organisation Social Progress Imperative -
1.       SPI 2015 ranks 133 countries in terms of social progress from highest to lowest and classified into six tiers from Very High Social Progress to Very Low Social Progress.
2.       India with score of 53.06 is ranked 101st. In 2014, India had score of 50.24 and was ranked 102 out of 132 countries.
3.       Top three countries on Social Progress are Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland with scores between 88.36 - 87.97
4.       SPI 2015 and BRICS countries -Among the BRICS countries, Brazil at 42nd rank leads the pack with a score of 70.89 and India with a score of 53.06 is placed at 101 position and is the worst country in terms of social progress. Other BRICS countries and their ranks are: South Africa (63rd), Russia (71st) and China (92nd).
5.       SPI 2015 and SAARC countries - Among the SAARC countries, Sri Lanka at 88th rank leads with a score of 60.10 and Afghanistan with a score of 35.40 is placed at 131 and is the worst country in terms of social progress. Other SAARC countries are: Nepal (98) Bangladesh (100), India (101) and Pakistan (122).

252.    South American Country Venezuela announced to cut working day for public sector workers to 5.5 hours to conserve energy, down from 8 - 9 hours as part of nationwide electricity rationing plan.

253.    Sports Ministry Signed MoU with IIFCL (India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited) for supporting Badminton sport.

254.    Stanislav Gross, Former Czech Republic Prime Minister, died.

255.    Subadhra Devi Rai, Indian-origin Singaporean nurse named for International Achievement Award 2015 by the Florence 

Nightingale International Foundation (FNIF) of the International Council of Nurses for her work in healthcare sector of women and refugees.

256.    Sumit Mazumder elected as President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2015-16 replacing Ajay Shriram.

257.    Sunil Kumar Sinha Appointed as Chief Justice Of Sikkim High Court.

258.    Sunita Tomar, known as face of India's anti-tobacco campaign Passed away.

259.    Supreme Court (SC) asked Union Government to re-examine the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 

2000 and make it more stringent at least in cases pertaining to heinous crimes like rape and murder.

260.    Supreme Court appointed Vivek Priyadarshi to lead the probe on IPL scandal.

261.    Surya Bahadur Thapa, former Prime Minister of Nepal Passed Away.

262.    Susanta Lahiri (India) and Kattesh V. Katti (USA) received Hevesy Medal Award 2015 for their contributions in fields of 

radio and nuclear chemistry at the Tenth International Conference on Methods and Applications of Radio-analytical Chemistry held in USA.

263.    Sushma Swaraj, Minister for External Affairs and Shripad Naik, (Minister in AYUSH Ministry) launched the logo for International Day of Yoga to be held each year on June 21.


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