Current Affairs Updates - 25 and 26 November 2017

Current Affairs Updates - 25 and 26 November 2017

Important Days

26th November is celebrated as Constitution Day. Ministry of Human Resources Development has launched a Digital Signature campaign on Constitution Day affirming faith in Indian Constitution and to generate awareness on fundamental duties enshrined in the Constitution.

• Giving the link in a tweet, Mr Javadekar said, people, can join the campaign by filling a form online. 

Banking/Economic Affairs

The Union government on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious plan to infuse 2.11 lakh crore capital over the next two years into public sector banks (PSBs) that are saddled with high, non-performing assets (NPAs) and facing the prospect of having to take haircuts on loans stuck in insolvency proceedings.

• The move is vital for the slowing economy, as private investments remain elusive in the face of the “twin-balance sheet problem” afflicting corporate India and public sector banks reflected in slow bank credit growth.

The RBI has decided to allow asset reconstruction companies to have higher holding than the 26 per cent cap set earlier with regard to limits on shareholding of the post-converted equity of a borrower company under reconstruction.

• The extent of shareholding will be in accordance with the permissible foreign direct investment limit for the sector. This exemption is subject to the condition that the ARCs meet the following criteria:
• The ARC shall be in compliance with the net-owned fund requirement of 100 crore on an ongoing basis;

National Affairs

Delta Corp Limited on Friday claimed to have set up the first casino game training courses in India in Goa.

• The casino game training courses were set up in 2013 as a part of the company's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) here.
• "We had the courses set up since 2013, earlier we did not have a fixed rule to who can apply for it," Anil Malani, President Delta Corp Ltd., told IANS here.

India has asked the United Nations to declare 2018 as the 'International Year of Millets' and promote it as nutrition-rich smart food across the world.

• Considering the importance of millets ...the Government of India along with other country governments urges the UN to declare 2018 as the 'International Year of Millets'," Singh said.
• This will go a long way in popularising millets which would benefit future generation of farmers as well as consumers, he added.

The government on Thursday promulgated the Indian Forest (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 which will exempt bamboo grown in non-forest areas from the requirement of felling and transit permit for its economic use.

• At present, India imports timber and allied products, such as pulp, paper, furniture etc and in 2015 alone India imported about 18.01 million cubic meters of timber and allied products which were worth Rs43,000 crore.

Paytm Payments Bank has raised 122 crore from Paytm's parent company One97 Communications and its Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, according to filings. 

• While Sharma has invested 62 crore, One97 Communications has infused the remaining amount, the filings showed. Earlier in September, Paytm Payments Bank had raised around 60 crore from Sharma, One97 Communications, and other existing investors.

Defence & Railway

Defence of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Exercise (DANX) was conducted under the aegis of Andaman & Nicobar Command.  The five day exercise started on 20 Nov 2017 and culminated on 24 Nov 2017.

• From the planning stage onwards, joint planning and integrated approach was adopted for synergistic application of forces. Main objective of the exercise was to practice & validate procedures and drills of all the Command forces aimed at defending Andaman & Nicobar Islands.  Accretional forces from the main land including fighters, Special Forces, Naval ships and heavy lift transport aircraft participated in the exercise. 

The railways has installed Asia's largest solid state interlocking (SSI) system in Kharagpur, which will enable station masters to set 800 different routes for trains in a matter of minutes. 

• Interlocking is a railway signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements of trains through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. 

Application / Portal 

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance has launched ‘Pro-fit’, a platform that will act as a one-stop solution to all the health-record tracking needs of customers. Pro-Fit is available on the company’s self-service app ‘Insurance Wallet’ and can also be accessed on the company website.

• Customers can store their health records, track their fitness levels, and get reminders for vaccinations or medications, a company press release said.

State Bank of India, the country’s largest public sector bank, has launched a unified integrated app called YONO (You Need Only One) that would offer all kinds of financial and lifestyle products.

• The omni-channel platform, which will be officially launched tomorrow by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, will allow customers to meet their lifestyle needs across 14 categories from booking cabs to paying for medical needs -- all under one roof. For this, the bank has partnered with 60 e-commerce players, including Amazon, Ola, Flipkart, Yatra, Swiggy and BYJU’s. Offline players such as Thomas Cook, Shoppers Stop and Cox and Kings are also part of the SBI partnership.

Schemes / Programme

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh announced here today an exclusive “Rural Livelihood” scheme for Northeast. The unique scheme under the title “North East Rural Livelihood Project” is being supported by the World Bank and will primarily benefit the tribals and the lower socio – economic groups, including women, in the region.

• To begin with, four states, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, will be taken up for helping the tribal and even the non-tribal lower groups living in remote areas. The project is aimed at assisting over 10,000 Self Help Groups (SHG) and benefitting approximately 3 lakh poor households.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for expansion of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao for a Pan India reach covering all the 640 districts (as per census 2011) of the Country to have a deeper positive impact on Child Sex Ratio.

• The Scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on 22nd January, 2015 at Panipat, Haryana as a comprehensive programme to address the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and related issues of empowerment of women over a life-cycle continuum. The CSR, defined as number of girls per 1000 boys in the age group of 0-6 years, declined sharply from 976 in 1961 to 918 in Census 2011. However there was no systematic response or comprehensive advocacy strategy to arrest and curb this disturbing trend. 

The Centre today approved setting up of 'Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendras' across 115 most backward districts of the country through a new scheme for reaching out to rural women and facilitating skill development, employment, digital literacy, health and nutrition.

• The government also approved expanding the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme from 161 districts to 640 districts in the country, as well as 150 additional 'one stop centres' for the survivors of sexual violence along with seven other programmes that are part of the umbrella scheme -- the National Mission for Empowerment of Women.
• The financial outlay for these schemes from 2017 to 2020 will be Rs 3,636.85 crore.

Agreements (MoU)

Samsung India, a subsidiary of the South Korea-based electronics major, today said it has partnered with the Uttar Pradesh government to set-up 20 new smart healthcare centres across the state to provide healthcare equipments. It  aims to offer affordable and quality healthcare to patients from the economically and socially weaker sections of society.

• Since 2015, Samsung has collaborated with 18 government hospitals across the country for the programme and over three lakh patients from the economically and socially deprived sections of society have benefitted from this, it said in a statement.
• The company had 18 healthcare centres across the country, including one in Lucknow. Now, with the additional 20 centres in UP, the total number goes to 38 across the country.

Summit /Conference / Events / Host

The three-day Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) will begin in Hyderabad on November 28 and will see PM Narendra Modi and Ivanka Trump in attendance among other delegates. This is the first time that the summit will be held in South Asia. The theme of the eighth edition of the summit is "Women First, Prosperity for All". 

• The main focus will be on lending support to women entrepreneurs across the world.
• The summit, which is being co-hosted by India and the United States of America, will be addressed by PM Modi while the US delegation will be led by US President Donald Trump's adviser and daughter Ivanka Trump.

Basel will become the first city to jointly host the Badminton and Para Badminton World Championships after it was awarded the 2019 edition of the Para event.

• The Badminton World Federation (BWF) confirmed on Tuesday that the two tournaments will be staged simultaneously for the first time.
• The Swiss city defeated Tokyo to land the 2019 Para Badminton World Championships in a vote which was delayed by the BWF Council to allow "further discussion."

Awards & Honours

Rajkummar Rao-starrer Newton, which is also India’s foreign-language Oscar entry, has won two trophies at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards at a ceremony in Brisbane, Australia. Rao won the best actor honour, while Mayank Tewari and Amit V Masurkar won the award for best screenplay.

• In his acceptance speech, Rajkummar said, “Let’s keep doing this beautiful work, let’s keep making these wonderful stories. Here’s to cinema!” He dedicated the award to his late mother.

Out of nine films nominated by the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) for this year's International Council for Film, Television and Audio-visual Communication (ICFT) UNESCO Gandhi Medal, five are from India. The Indian films competing for the prestigious ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Medal are 'Kshitij - A Horizon', 'Manusangada', 'Poorna', 'Railway Children' and 'Take-Off'.

• The foreign films in the fray are 'Amok' from Poland, 'Khibula' - a co-production of Germany, France and Georgia, 'The Last Painting' from Taiwan and 'Women of The Weeping River' - a joint production of the US and UK.
• All nine films are being screened at the ongoing 48th edition of IFFI here.

Sports: Awards & Honours

A tally of 37 LaLiga goals in 2016-17 was enough to see Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi claim his fourth European Golden Shoe award which equalled him to Ronaldo.

• Lionel Messi drew level with Cristiano Ronaldo's tally of four European Golden Shoes after receiving the award at a ceremony on Friday.
• The Barcelona superstar claimed the prize – handed to Europe's top goalscorer – for his 37 LaLiga strikes in 2016-17.
• It is the fourth time Messi has taken the honours, after his successes in 2010, 2012 and 2013.

Hong Kong Open: PV Sindhu beats Ratchanok Intanon to enter final.

• Free flowing badminton was to the fore again as PV Sindhu dished out another dominant performance to drub Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 21-17, 21-17 in the semi-finals of the Hong Kong Open Super Series on Saturday.
• Sindhu's victory ensured a repeat of last year's final where the Indian lost to Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei. The world No.1 defeated Ji Hyun Sung of South Korea 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in the other last four clash.