CURRENT AFFAIRS 1-2nd Nov., 2014

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CURRENT AFFAIRS 2nd Nov., 2014

1. India’s national Museum of Mankind, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGMRS), is set to recommend the Ministry of Culture to announce Pedana as country’s ‘heritage village’. The status of the heritage village would help in conserving the Kalamkari art form in its traditional way, and also gives recognition for the artisans involved in the rural industry. The IGMRS is an autonomous organisation of the Union Ministry of Culture.

2. Spanish government has successfully passed a new copyright law known popularly as the “Google Tax” which imposes fees for online content aggregators such as Google News, in an effort to protect its print media industry. The new law requires services which post links and excerpts of news articles to pay a fee to the organisation representing Spanish newspapers.

3. The Karnataka state government has issued a gazette notification on October 31 renaming Bangalore as Bengaluru. The Union home ministry had approved the name change last month. Along with Bangalore, 11 other cities and towns in the state had their names changed.

4. As per the Reserve Bank’s new guidelines, bank customers in six metros - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore are allowed to withdraw money and/or carry out non-financial transactions like mini-statements at ATMs of banks, where they hold saving/current accounts, free of charge only five times a month. Every transaction beyond this threshold will be charged Rs 20 per use. The number of free transactions at ATMs of non-home banks has also been cut to three times a month from five times.

5. Government will release a new series of national accounts with 2011-12 as base year for computing the economic growth rate. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data based on the new series will be released for three consecutive years from 2011-12 in January next year. At present, the GDP is computed on 2004-05 base year. The new data will present a more realistic picture of the economy.

CURRENT AFFAIRS 1st Nov., 2014

1. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that the new government will introduce the Right to Services Bill and a citizens' charter so that the common man will get services in a time-bound manner. A committee headed by state Chief Secretary Swadhin Khastriya has been formed and will submit a report within a month to the government in this regard.

2. Mineral-rich Chhattisgarh state would be celebrating its fifteenth Foundation Day on November 1 that would exhibit state's growth since its inception. The event is named as Chhattisgarh Rajyotsava – 2014 and will take place at Naya Raipur - the upcoming new capital city of the state. Parab Chhattisgarh will be the Cultural theme of the three day event.

3. World Bank plans to slash 500 jobs in the next three years globally, even as it looks to create up to 300 new positions in India to meet business needs. The global lender’s decision to trim 500 jobs and cancel about 70 existing open vacancies comes after reviewing its “business strategies” for months.

4. A four-day trilateral Coast Guard exercise ‘Dosti-XII’ among India, Maldives and Sri Lanka off the Maldives coast ended on Oct 31. ‘Dosti’ was institutionalised in 1991 as bilateral exercise between the Indian Coast Guard and the Maldives National Security Service. Sri Lanka became part of the exercise in 2012.

5. Education Ministers of eight South Asian countries have issued a joint statement titled “The New Delhi Declaration on Education” and resolved to collaborate on increased use of information technology and improving the quality of education. Human Resource Development Minister of India Smriti Irani chaired the meeting.