Daily Current Affairs Update for 4 February 2015

Daily Current Affairs Update for today :-

1. RBI cuts SLR, allows new ‘unbreakable’ bank FDs

RBI left key rates unchanged in his policy review except SLR , RBI surprised banks by bringing down the SLR prescription to 21.5% from 22%.
SLR, or statutory liquidity ratio, is the portion of deposits banks must invest in government bonds.
RBI also retained the repo rate—the rate at which RBI lends overnight funds to banks—unchanged at 7.75%.
RBI also retained the cash reserve ratio(CRR)—the portion of deposits that banks have to maintain with RBI—at 4%.
RBI also introduced a new category of 'unbreakable' fixed deposits—which cannot be withdrawn prematurely—where banks will offer higher interest rates.

2. RBI raises FII limit in Power Grid to 30 per cent

The Reserve Bank today raised Foreign Institutional Investors' (FIIs) investment limit in Power Grid Corporation to 30 per cent of its paid up capital.
FIIs, through primary market and stock exchanges, can now purchase up to 30 per cent of the paid up capital of Power Grid Corporation of India under the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS), RBI said in a notification

3. Nabard sanctions 1,112 cr for creation of 1,000 warehouses in 7 states

Nabard has sanctioned 1,112 crore for creation of 1,336 warehouses in various States and State Government Corporations in the country.
According to Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Chairman, Nabard, The recent Project Sanctioning Committee of Nabard has sanctioned creation of 1,336 warehouses in Haryana, Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and West Bengal, which will create 7.5 lakh tonnes of additional storage space.
Cumulatively, Nabard has sanctioned 5,830 crore under Rural Infrastructure/Warehousing Infrastructure Fund creating and additional capacity of 16.3 million tonnes as against 35 million tonnes intended to be established under 12th Five Year Plan.

4. Shri Kapil Sibal Launches ‘National Cloud’ Under ‘MeghRaj’

Sh. Sibal, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, here today launched the National Cloud under ‘MeghRaj’ Initiative. The National Cloud is being implemented by NIC.
In order to utilise and harness the benefits of Cloud Computing, Government of India has embarked upon an ambitious initiative – ‘GI Cloud’ which has been named as ‘MeghRaj’.
The focus of this initiative is to accelerate delivery of e-services in the country while optimizing ICT spending of the Government.
This will ensure optimum utilization of the infrastructure and speed up the development and deployment of eGov applications.

5. Poonam Khetrapal Singh took charge as Regional Director of SEARO

Poonam Khetrapal Singh took charge as the Regional Director of World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia Region on 1 February 2014.
Poonam Khetrapal Singh succeeded Samlee Plianbangchang of Thailand who served for ten years consecutively. The Regional Director has a term of five years and can get a second term.
She is the first Indian in 44 years to hold the post of Regional Director, South East Asian Regional Organistion (SEARO). India had occupied the post from 1948-1968.

About South East Asian Regional Organisational:

SEARO is one of the six regions of World Health and its headquarters is in New Delhi. SERO has 11 countries namely India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Timor Leste and DPR Korea. SERO is headed by a Regional Director (RD) who is elected by the members of the SEARO countries.

6. Justice A K Mathur to head 7th Central Pay Commission

Former Supreme Court Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur has been appointed as the Chairman of the 7th Pay Commission. Petroleum and Natural Gas Secretary, Vivek Rae will be the full time Member and Director, National Institute of Public Finances and Policy, Dr Rathin Roy will be its part-time Member. Officer on Special Duty in the Department of Expenditure, Ms. Meena Agarwal will be the Secretary of the Pay panel.
The Commission has been mandated to submit its report in two years time and its recommendations would be implemented from 1st of January 2016.
Government constitutes Pay Commission almost every ten years to revise the pay scales of its employees and often these are adopted by states after some modification.
The newly appointed Commission will revise the salaries of over 50 lakh Central government employees and about 30 lakh pensioners.

7. Bank of Maharashtra launches MahaMobile app

Bank of Maharashtra has launched its new mobile banking app - MahaMobile. This app will enable the bank's customers to view all their deposit and loan accounts, do fund transfers, bill payments and raise a variety of service requests on their mobile.

8. Sachin Tendulkar, CNR Rao receive Bharat Ratna

Sachin Tendulkar notched up another prestigious first when he joined the list of the nation's Bharat Ratnas today. The President awarded him and noted scientist Professor CNR Rao with India's highest civilian honour at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Dr Rao, 79, is a former director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and currently works at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advance Scientific Research in Bangalore. Mr Rao is the fourth recipient of the Bharat Ratna from the field of science.

9. World Cancer day is being observed on Wednesday, 4 February 2015 to raise awareness on its prevention, detection, and treatment.

10. Gunadhar Pandey joins as Director (Tech), NCL

Gunadhar Pandey, GM, NCL, CIL, has taken over the charge as Director (Technical), Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL). He succeeded A D Mathur who retired on January 31, 2015.

11. 35th National Games day 3

Haryana wrestlers dominate the second day of games taking their State to the top of the Tally with 11 Golds. Services SCB with 8 Golds at number 2 while Maharashtra with 7 golds stands 3rd in the Tally.
On day two of the national games, Minali Sethi of Orrisa won the gold medal in the Women's 58kg weightlifting clean and jerk category. The second place was fetched by Haryana's Harjeet Kaur. Sumanbala devi from manipur completed the podium with a total of 184 kg.
In the men's 50 m pistol final, Indian ace shooter Jitu rai had to settle for Bronze medal. PM Prakash won the gold medal fetching and Amanpreet Singh took the silver medal
In the women's 10m air rifle event, Asian Championships Gold medalist Pooja Ghatkar won the gold medal edging past Ayonika Pual in an intense shoot off. The bronze medal was pocketed by Common Wealth Games gold medalist Apoorvi Chandela from Rajasthan .
Maharastra picked up gold medal by dominating the women's 10 m air rifle team event. Its team members were Anjali Bhagwat, Ayonika PAul and Pooja Ghatkar . Rajasthan meanwhile pocketed the silver medal while, Uttar Pradesh completed the podium.

12. Two Day National Technical Seminar on Railway Track Issues Concludes Need to Benchmark the Best Engineering Pracatices of India and Abroad: Suresh Prabhu

Institution of Permanent Way Engineers /IPWE (India) have organised a two days National Technical Seminar at New Delhi on 29th& 30th January 2015.
The Seminar has been organised to deliberate on issues of Maintenance and Rail & Weld Management, Increase of Speed on existing Indian Railway Routes, Metro System Design, Standards and Construction.
Delivering Valedictory address at the conclusion of the two day seminar, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that there is a need to benchmark the best engineering practices of India and abroad and then adapt them to suit Indian requirements.

13. TPDDL's Urja Mela held

Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) organised Urja Mela 2015, in its bid to sensitise school children about the importance of energy conservation, wherein more than 1,000 students belonging to more than 100 Delhi schools- both government and private participated.
During the mela, organised at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Pitampura, various competition including debates, painting, etc were organised.

14. Culture, history of Chhattisgarh come alive at Surajkund mela

Surajkund international crafts mela is a great opportunity to showcase the tremendous progress made by Chhattisgarh.
Chief minister Dr Raman Singh, who was present at the inaugural ceremony of 29th Surajkund mela that began at Faridabad on Sunday, said, "Chhattisgarh has always been rich in terms of religion, culture and history. State represents culture of Boudh, Shav, Vaishnav and Jains of ancient India, and is also blessed with lush green forests."
Dr Singh inspected artefacts and stalls of Chhattisgarh set up at the theme area. He met various craftsmen and local artists from the state and boosted their enthusiasm.