CURRENT AFFAIRS 21-22nd Oct., 2014

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CURRENT AFFAIRS 22nd Oct., 2014

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for revamping urban governance and linking it to the ‘Digital India’ mission and ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign. Urban governance includes objectives such as mobile governance, e-governance, solid waste management, waste water management etc.

2. Kotak Mahindra Bank has launched KayPay, a bank agnostic payment product for Facebook users to send money to each other. According to the bank, users can transfer funds by choosing recipients from their Facebook friends list. KayPay is built on top of the mobile based Immediate Payment System launched by the National Payment Corporation of India.

3. Government has issued draft order to merge National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) with its parent, Jignesh Shah-promoted Financial Technologies (India) Ltd, or FTIL. The order comes about a year after a Rs 5,600-crore payment crisis broke out at NSEL.

4. Election Commission (EC) has proposed to make paid news an electoral offence and wants a ceiling on the campaign expenditure of political parties often used to pump in unlimited resources. The proposals seeks to provide a level-playing field for political parties in elections.

5. The first border haat facility on zero line on the Indo-Bangla international border in Tripura was inaugurated. Selected commodities from both countries would be trade during the border hatt period and people residing within a distance of 5 km from the border are entitled to do business at the haat. The facility was opened to boost bilateral trade

CURRENT AFFAIRS 21st Oct., 2014

1. Union Cabinet recommended the promulgation of an Ordinance to acquire the land of cancelled 214 coal blocks mines. It has also approved a plan for e-auctioning the cancelled blocks to end-user private players of coal from the power, steel and cement sectors.

2. Government has allowed private defence manufacturing firms to sell equipment to state-run entities without prior approval. This is expected to increase investments into the defence sector.

3. WHO officially declared the Africa’s most populous nation Nigeria as Ebola free but it said that the country remains vulnerable as long as the virus was raging in West Africa. The announcement follows Ebola free status declaration of Senegal.

4. India and China have agreed to take measures to improve border management. It includes the establishment of a hotline between the two Army headquarters and designating additional border posts for meetings between local commanders.

5. Indian batsman Virat Kohli claimed number two position in the International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings. The list was topped by AB de Villiers and South Africa’s Hashim Amla was at the third position. Indian skipper MS Dhoni was the next Indian at number six in the list.