19th August 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

sponsored links

National Affairs

• The Allahabad High court ruled that, all government servants, elected representatives, members of judiciary and any other persons who get any benefit or salary from the state exchequer or public fund should send their children to primary schools run by the state education board.
• The court has asked the Chief Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government to "take steps within six months so as to make the aforesaid directions applicable from the next academic session," and file a compliance report thereafter.
• Rajasthan‬ Public Service Commission is going to use jammers at examination centres to check unfair means in exams.
• Tamil Nadu Tops in organ donation in the country with organs of 683 persons being harvested and donated to over 3,000 beneficiaries since the setting up of the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu in 2008.
• Health Minister of Tamil Nadu : C Vijaya Bhaskar

International Affairs

• Today (19th August) is World Photography Day.
  
• UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has asked India and Pakistan to exercise "maximum restraint" in the wake of increased tensions along the Line of Control and hoped that talks between the National Security Advisors of both sides will result in a "positive outcome."
• Note : The National Security Advisers of India and Pakistan are meeting in New Delhi for talks on terrorism-related issues for the first time on August 23, as decided in a meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif last month in Ufa in Russia.
• National Security Adviser (India) : Ajit Doval
• National Security Adviser (Pakistan) : Sartaj Aziz
• Note : There have been 40 violations of the 2003 ceasefire accord this month and a total of over 230 ceasefire violations along the Indo-Pak border this year.

Science & Technology

• China has successfully tested the power system of a Long March-5 carrier, stated to be the largest space launch vehicle that will be used in the Chang'e-5 lunar mission around 2017.

People in News

• Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has agreed to become Maharashtra's tiger ambassador.
• Tendulkar wrote a letter to Mr. Sudhir Mungatiwar, the state's forest minister, to give his consent for the same.

Business & Economy

• RBI suspended licence of Seven Non - Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs).
• The 7 NBFCs are 
• Religare Finance, 
• Nott Investments, 
• Artisans Micro Finance, 
• Eden Trade & Commerce, 
• RCS Parivar Finance, 
• Dewra Stocks & Securities, 
• Swetasree Finance.
• Above NBFCs were suspended by RBI because they did not conducted lending operation for long period of time. 
• India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has launched a mobile wallet app, SBI Buddy, in collaboration with Accenture and MasterCard.
• The service will be available to existing as well as non-SBI customers.
• The app was launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance and Hasmukh Adhia, Secretary, Department of Financial Services.

New Appointments

• The government has recently appointed New Heads for Five Nationalized Banks. They are,
• Bank of Baroda - P S Jayakumar
• Bank of India - M O Rego
• Canara Bank - Rakesh Sharma
• IDBI Bank - Kishore Piraji Kharat
• Punjab National Bank - Usha Ananthasubramanian
• Important Note : For the First Time, the union government has appointed TWO Private Sector Banking Professionals (marked in red) to head the Public Sector Banks (BOB and Canara Bank)
• IDBI Bank Ltd has announced that Kishor Piraji Kharat took charge as Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer.

Awards & Honors

• Queen Elizabeth is all set to become Britain's longest-reigning monarch in history.
• On September 9, she will topple her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who reigned for more than 63 years to become the new record holder. 

Sports

• Bangladesh wins Under-16 SAFF Championship for the first time.
• SAFF - South Asian Football Federation
• Sri Lankan Cricketer Kumar Sangakkara will be retiring after the second Test match against India at Colombo.
• He is the second-highest run-scorer in ODIs and fifth-highest run-scorer in Test cricket.
• He is described as one of the "most polished and prudent of batsmen".
• Sebastian Coe, the double Olympic champion who led the organising committee of London’s 2012 Games, has been elected as the president of IAAF, the world governing body for athletics.
• IAAF - International Association of Athletics Federations

Read more Daily Current Affairs updates from here

sponsored links