CURRENT AFFAIRS November Week I

Awards And Honours

Appointments

National Round-Up

• Rishi Jaitly, Twitter’s India head who helped popularise the adoption of the micro-blogging website among government departments to respond to citizen queries, has quit the company.
• The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016, designed to curb black money and passed by parliament in August, came into effect.
• The government allowed online applications for affordable homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) from November 3, with an aim to ease the process and boost the number of applications.
• The Paris Agreement to combat climate change officially entered into force after 55 partiesto the convention accounting for at least 55% of total GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions ratified it.
• An Inter-Ministerial Committee of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in the first week of November 2016 asked for one-day ban on a leading Hindi News Channel, NDTV India from 12.01 A.M. of 9 November to 12.01 A.M. of 10 November 2016.
• The book “An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India” has been authored by Dr. Shashi Tharoor, the Lok Sabha MP.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the first International Agro bio-diversity Congressin the national capital where 900 delegates from 60 countries will discuss conservation of genetic resources.
• Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government ofIndia is hosting the Seventh Session of the Conference of Parties (COP7) to WHO FCTC during 7-12 November, 2016, at India Exposition Mart Ltd., Greater Noida, District Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh.
• Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA)launched by the Union Government. Under this scheme, free health check-ups to pregnant women at government health centres and hospitals will be provided.
• Prime Minister is set to be the mascot of the “Incredible India” campaign with the Tourism Ministry finallydeciding to do away with plans to rope in any Bollywood stars.

Snippets from the States

• The finance ministry released first installment of special assistance of Rs 1,093.34 crore for repair and permanent restoration of damaged public buildings in J&K.
• The Odisha government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)to set up four STPI centres in the state.
• Chhattisgarh government has launched a campaign to complete the irrigation projects that could not be completed. Under the campaign called “Lakshya Bhagirathi”.
• In a shocking revelation, as many as 76 tiger deaths have been reported in the country from January to October this year.
• The Indian army has successfully completed its task of laying an irrigation pipeline in the Demchok region of Eastern Ladakh.
• The project was being conducted under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemeto link the villages in the region with a hot spring
• Madhya Pradesh is at the top of the list, accounting for nearly a third of all mortalities. Karnataka, which boasts the highest tiger population among states, is in second spot with 13 deaths.
• The Haryana government announced that as part of its International Gita Mahotsav,the government is tying up with various organisations to holding aarti simultaneously across different countries.
• IIT Kharagpur now claim they have found evidence of another “lost” Indian river  Called “Chandrabhaga“, this ancient river is believed to have existed at a distance of about two km from the 13th century Sun Temple at Konark, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the eastern state of Odisha.
• Maharashtra government has offered jobs to eight sports-persons, who have brought laurels to the state through their performance at the national and international level.
• Free WiFi for all at Cuttack Railway Station has been inaugurated by local MP Bhartruhari Mahatab in presence of Devraj Panda, Divisional Railway Manager of Khurda Road.
• Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have jointly topped the ease of doing business ranking, while Gujarat has slipped to the third position in the list prepared by the World Bank.
• Kerala has become the third Open Defecation Free (ODF) state in the country. The announcement was made on the state’s foundation day.
• The ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) will launch ‘Jana Chaitanya Yatra‘ in Andhra Pradesh to highlight the welfare and developmental initiatives of the government.
• Maharashtrahas been ranked first state in the country on reforms in agricultural marketing, followed by Gujarat and Rajasthan, by the NITI Aayog.
• The country’s first “tea museum” was inaugurated at Munnarin the high ranges of Kerala’s Idukki district.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Saur Sujala Yojana”in Chhattisgarh that would provide solar powered irrigation pumps to farmers at a subsidized price.
• Maharashtra is converting 42 state-of-the-art cyber-crime labs into cyber police stations,as part of the BJP-led government’s strategy to take on cyber criminals.
• The first titanium project of India being established by Saraf Group in Ganjam district of Odishastarted its test production.
• After ‘Operation Calm down’ in South Kashmir, Army is now focusing on another operation — ‘School Chalo’, under which it identifies areas and provides students with free coaching and make them participate in extra-curricular activities.

Banking and Economy

• State Bank of India (SBI), has cut its home loan rate to the lowest level in six years. The country’s largest public sector lender has cut its home loan rate to 9.1%.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed banks to issue rupee denominated bonds, or masala bonds, in the overseas market to shore up their capital base as well as for financing infrastructure and affordable housing.
• Earth port Plc, the leading payment network for cross-border transactions, has received the Reserve Bank of India’s permission to provide outbound cross border payment services to banks in India.
• Construction major HCC’s Rs.5,000 crore debt recast has become the first case to get approval of a high-level panel set up under RBI’s new scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A).
• Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC), a not-for-profit public-private partnership between National Skill Development Corporation and the industry, has signed a MoU with Taiwan to strengthen cooperation in the field of corporate job vacancies and recruitment services post skilling in India and internationally.

International Round-Up

• The EU and Canada signed a free trade deal that was almost derailed last week by objections from French-speaking Belgians, exposing the difficulties of securing agreement from 28 member states as Britain prepares for Brexit talks.
• Australiais considering joint military patrols with Indonesia in the contested waters of the South China Sea amid growing concerns in the west that a Chinese diplomatic offensive in Southeast Asia is upending the region’s balance of power.
• China adopted a controversial cyber security lawto counter what Beijing says are growing threats such as hacking and terrorism, but the law triggered concerns among foreign business and rights groups.

India and the World

• India and Palestinesigned a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for setting up a Palestine-India Techno Park in Ramallah, the External Affairs Ministry.
• India and Nepalcommenced their 10th joint military exercise here which will be held over two weeks with emphasis on counterterrorism in mountainous terrain.
• The Indo-Nepal Joint Military Exercise Surya Kiran-X commenced at Army Battle School, Saljhandi in Nepal.
• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT Services provider said that University of New South Wales (UNSW) Australiaand TCS have signed a memorandum of understanding to pursue technology research collaboration.
• National Security Advisors of India and Japanheld bilateral consultations in New Delhi.
• Googlehas tied up with Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) for 360 degree virtual tour of 280-odd monuments across the country.
• India-Bangladesh joint military exercise ‘Sampriti-2016′. Sixth in the series of joint exercises, this edition would be conducted at Bangabandhu Senanibas (BBS) at Tangail between November 5 and November 18 and would focus on counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations in semi mountainous and jungle terrain.
• India and the UK have signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on increasing cooperation in intellectual property rights (IPRs) and ease of doing business.
• Two MoUs were signed during the high level engagement and the UK was in voice with India against those who perpetrate and foster terrorism.

Science and Technology

• NASAhas revealed a new easy to use map as part of its Spot the Station tool to help stargazers find the ISS, providing the best sighting opportunities for each pinned location on the map.
• NASA has Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, or MMS that is giving scientists new insight into Earth magnetosphere now holds the Guinness World Record for highest altitude fix of a GPS signal.
• NHPC, India’s largest hydropower generation company, announced that it has commissioned its 50 Megawatt (MW) wind power project (WPP) in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.
• India’s Telecom regulatory authority, TRAI, has made it compulsory for all the Broadband providers to at least ensure a minimum speed of 512 Kbps after users exhaust their initial data quota.

Sports

Obituary 

Important days