CURRENT AFFAIRS 12-13th August, 2014

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CURRENT AFFAIRS 13th August, 2014

1. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India recommended defined control of ownership at 20 per cent shareholding in media management and curbs cross-media and corporate ownership of television channels and newspapers. It also suggested forming a commission to look into issues relating to paid news, private treaties and editorial independence.

2. Global rating agency Moody’s predicted India’s economic growth to be at 5 per cent this year and will accelerate further in 2015. In its report ‘Global Macro Outlook 2014-15: Summer Lull: Subdued, But Less Risky Global Growth Likely’, it had also said that India and Indonesia would see “more resilient GDP growth”.

3. Technocrat Nandan Nilekani is co-authoring his next book " Rebooting Government" along with Viral Shah, a computer scientist who co-created a new programming language Julia. The book is expected to be released in December and will narrate ideas on crowdsourcing, hackathons and app ecosystems that can help build more efficient government systems.

4. Loksabha was informed that several recommendations for conferring the Bharat Ratna on hockey great Major Dhayan Chand and they have been forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office. Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the country and is awarded in recognition of exceptional service or performance of highest order in fields of human behaviour.

5. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a special Central assistance of Rs. 8,000 crore for four major road projects and waived off Jammu and Kashmir’s Rs. 60-crore liability towards the Food Corporation of India during his visit to J&K.

6. Two Indian-origin academicians have won prestigious global prizes in the field of mathematics. Manjul Bhargava won the Fields Medal, also known as "Nobel prize of mathematics" while Subhash Khot won the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, awarded by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), at the International Congress of Mathematicians 2014 held in Seoul.

CURRENT AFFAIRS 12th August, 2014

1. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has transferred almost its entire surplus to the government, against the usual practice of giving the residual surplus after appropriation to the Reserve Fund and Asset Management Fund. It is as per the recommendations of Y H Malegam committee which looked into the issue of surplus transfer to government.

2. Muthoot Fincorp is set to become one of the first non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) to function as a business correspondent of banks. As business correspondent, Muthoot Fincorp will disburse microfinance loans and MSME (micro, small and medium enterprise) advances on behalf of banks. It may partner more than one bank subject to regulatory approval.

3. Government introduced the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 in Lok Sabha. The new Bill proposes to establish a six-member body the NJAC, which will be headed by CJI. The composition of the commission has been given a constitutional status.

4. Mr. Haidar al-Abadi was named the new Premier of Iraq after his nomination by the Parliament’s Shia bloc was accepted by the President. He succeeds Nouri al-Maliki to steer the country out of a raging war.

5. Member of India’s first Lok Sabha Reshamlal Jangde died due to age-related ailments. He had also served as a minister in the Madhya Pradesh government. Jangde was among the four MPs of the first Lok Sabha who were felicitated on the 60th anniversary of Lok Sabha in May 2012.

6. The Tata Group, in partnership with Singapore Airlines, announced its second venture in airlines sector with the launch of ‘Vistara’- a full service airline that is expected to start its operations by October 2014. It had already announced the purchase of 30 per cent stake in AirAsia in early 2013.