Current Affairs Sep 03, 2015

DOWNLOAD PDF

01.Union Cabinet has approved Marginal Fields Policy (MFP) for the development of unexploited hydrocarbon discoveries by state owned oil companies:69 unexploited oil fields owned by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) will be opened for competitive bidding based on revenue sharing model. This decision is expected to stimulate investment in oil exploration sector as well as increase domestic oil and gas production. It will also help in monetizing 70,000 crore rupees worth of resources form these unexploited oil fields

02. India wins UNESCO Award for conserving Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple in Kerala:India has won the UNESCO prize ‘Award of Excellence’ 2015 for the conservation efforts of the Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple in Kerala. The top award was given in the Asia Pacific Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation. It is an ancient Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva located in Thrissur district of Kerala.
03. India to join UN’s Better Than Cash Alliance to achieve financial inclusion:India has decided to join UN-based Better Than Cash Alliance with a view to reduce cash transactions in its economy and achieve financial inclusion. The official announcement in this regard was made on the first anniversary of Government’s flagship financial inclusion programme Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY.)

04. Union Government accepts A P Shah panel report on MATUnion Government has accepted Justice AP Shah Committee report on the Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) on foreign institutional investors (FIIs). By accepting the recommendations, Government will not impose levy on FIIs prior to 1st April 2015 i.e. retrospectively. In the meantime, government has ordered Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT) field officers not to pursue cases against FIIs on the issues related to MAT.
05. Mumbai wins Buchi Babu Memorial Trophy of Cricket:Mumbai has won the Buchi Babu Memorial Trophy in the All India invitation cricket tournament. In the final match played at Chennai, they defeated Tamil Nadu Cricket Association Districts (TNCA) XI team by six wickets.

06. Union Government recognizes Yoga as Sports discipline:Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has decided to recognize Yoga as a sports discipline and place it in the Priority category. This decision was taken by Ministry while reviewing and revising the categorization of various Sports disciplines.

07. SC stays Rajasthan HC’s decision declaring ‘Santhara’ ritual illegal:The Supreme Court (SC) of India has stayed Rajasthan High Court’s order declaring Santhara, a Jain ritual of voluntary and systematic fasting to death illegal. Santhara is a religious custom of Jain religion that embraces voluntary death in order to purge oneself of bad ‘karma’ and attain ‘moksha’. The practitioners of this custom take an oath to stop eating until they die of starvation after taking oath with a guru.

08. Punjab Government wins award for achievement in rooftop solar power output:Punjab Government has won first award in the category of highest capacity addition in grid connected solar rooftop power in the country during the financial year 2014-15.

09.Union Government frames Smart National Common Mobility Card Model to enable metro travel and shopping: Union Ministry of Urban Development has come out with a Smart National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) model to enable seamless metro travel and shopping. NCMC card meets basic travel needs based on concept of stored value of money. It can be used for traveling by any means of transport and also enables account based retail shopping applications. The card does away with the need for carrying separate cards for banking and transit. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will be the nodal agency in indigenously developing and managing of settlement and clearing of payments, simulating terminals and network, cards, provide certified tools to vendors for and other services. Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will develop the specified standards and hardware for Metro gates and validators along with related ecosystems for making NCMC card model operational.

10. World's 1st natural heritage centre in India, Dehradun India signed an agreement with UNESCO on 02-09-2015 to establish the world's first centre for the conservation of `natural' World Heritage sites at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehradun. The institute will cater to the entire Asia-Pacific region for not just conserving existing sites but also identifying potential natural heritage sites across 50 countries.