CURRENT AFFAIRS 16-17th August, 2014

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CURRENT AFFAIRS 17th August, 2014

1. India sought investments from Singapore in its infrastructure and connectivity projects similar to that of ambitious Delhi-Mumbai and Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridors. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj along with her counterpart inaugurated the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties between the countries.

2. Planning Commission has been finally decommissioned. It was set up in 1950 as an extra constitutional body entrusted with the function of planned development. It may be replaced with National Development Reforms Commission with new functions and composition.

3. PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the commissioning of 6,800-tonne guided missile destroyer, INS Kolkata. The destroyer was built under the Project 15A with a budget of Rs 3,500 crore and is entirely built in India. Project 15A destroyers carry 16 Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles that strike ships or land targets at ranges out to 295 kilometres.

4. Department of Telecom is working on modalities to merge the two state-run telecom companies BSNL and MTNL and also undertake organisational restructuring. The two companies are losing market share due to financial and procurement problems, lack of adequate skills set due to changing nature of technology.

5. Centre has suggested to the states to merge their Water and Sanitation departments to give a push to the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, which seeks to make the country free of open defecation by 2019. The Centre is planning to make the country open-defecation free by 2019 as that would be a "fitting tribute" to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary that year.

6. Modi laid the foundation stone for a special economic zone (SEZ) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai. Central government will set up state-level export commissions to facilitate and promote exports.

CURRENT AFFAIRS 16th August, 2014

1. China inaugurated its second railway line in Tibet which is close to the Indian border in Sikkim. The 253-km railway line links Tibet's provincial capital Lhasa with Xigaze and will enhance mobility of its military in the remote and strategic Himalayan region. It is the second railway line in Tibet and an extension of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the world's highest rail link connecting China's mainland with Tibet.

2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his Independence Day speech, the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana scheme. The scheme proposes each MP to choose a small village with a population of between 3,000 and 5,000 in his constituency and develop it as a model village with proper facilities of education, health, cleanliness, and sanitation over a period of one year. It would benefit thousands of villages and also provide inspiration to other villages in the vicinity.

3. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue Rs 1,000 denomination banknotes with inset letter R in the Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005. In addition to extra security features, MG series-2005 banknotes have the year of printing on the reverse of the banknotes which is not present in the pre-2005 series.

4. Unocoin, a Bitcoin start-up from Karnataka, has received $250,000 investment from an overseas venture capitalist. It is described as ‘largest known to date in India's Bitcoin space’. The value of each bitcoin stood at a modest $530 or Rs.32,000 at present after having reached heights of $1,200 in December last year.

5. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India next month will also include a visit by the Chinese leader to Gujarat. Gujarat has been among the biggest destinations for Chinese investment in India and Beijing will set up industrial parks in India, based on its experience in Gujarat.

6. Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is the only Indian institution to be placed in the top 500 in an annual ranking of Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). It is placed in the world rank category of 301-400 among the global educational institutions. The ARWU rankings is dominated by American Universities with Harvard University, Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are ranked at first, second and third positions, respectively.