12th January 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• A new Social Security Agreement signed between India and Australia has come into operation enabling people of both nations to avail retirement benefits in each other's country, a pact likely to boost bilateral business linkages.
• The Agreement signed in November 2014 came into operation on January 1, 2016.

National Affairs

• Today (12th January) is National Youth Day.
  
• This day is celebrated every year on 12 th of January, the birth anniversary of social reformer, philosopher and thinker Swami Vivekananda.
• Since 1985 onwards, National Youth Day is being celebrated all over the country.
• The Supreme Court has passed a stay order on the Modi government's lifting of four-year-old ban on holding of Jallikattu in poll-bound Tamil Nadu.
• The government has unveiled a concerted action plan to reduce road accidents by half, by mandating safety air bags in all passenger vehicles, spending Rs. 11,000 crore to fix fatal road spots and cracking down on bogus driving licences.
• The government also plans to declare about 50,000 km of highways as National Highways (NH) before January 26, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said today.
• Border Security Force (BSF) has launched 'Operation Cold' along the international border in Rajasthan covering Sriganganagar, Bikaner, Barmer and Jaisalmer that will continue till January 30.
• Note : The Operation Cold was launched to contain any infiltration or intrusion from Pakistan in fog and cold wave weather conditions in the western desert.
• Telangana has become the first State to introduce compulsory gender education at the graduate level; without repeating gender stereotypes in its bilingual textbook titled, ‘Towards a World of Equals.’
• The book introduced on a pilot basis in engineering colleges affiliated to the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU-Hyderabad) discusses gender in its composite form without limiting itself to crime against women. 
• From information on unacknowledged women writers of Telangana to problems of sex selection and women’s work in politics and economics, the book attempts to cover it all.

Science & Technology

• The government today showcased several low-cost medical innovations including home kits for measuring blood glucose, hemoglobin levels and real-time diagnosis of malaria, dengue.
• The innovations have been developed by the Centre's Department of Biotechnology (DBT) as well as by start-ups supported by the government.
• Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan , who was present on the occasion, said that India's medical technology was fourth largest in Asia and by 2025 it will be worth USD 20 billion.
• Scientists at Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes (CIRB) in Hisar claimed to have successfully produced a cloned buffalo offspring 'Cirb Gaurav'.
• With this achievement, CIRB becomes India's second centre to produce a cloned buffalo.
• CIRB Director : Dr Inderjeet Singh

Awards & Honors

• Himachal Pradesh's folk dance Kullu Natti has entered the Guinness Book of World Record as the largest folk dance in the world.

Books & Authors

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released a book titled "Maru Bharat Saru Bharat" (My India Noble India) written by Jain Acharya Ratnasundersuriswarji Maharaj through video conference.
• Note :  This is the 300th book of Ratnasunder suriswarji Maharaj.

Business & Economy

• The import cover of India’s foreign exchange reserves increased to 9.8 months as at September-end 2015 from 8.9 months in March-end 2015, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s ‘Half-yearly Report on Management of Foreign Exchange Reserves’.
• Note : Import cover of reserves is the traditional trade-based indicator of reserve adequacy. 
• Adequacy of reserves is an important parameter in gauging a country’s ability to absorb external shocks.
• Capital market regulator SEBI has tightened the norms governing mutual funds investment in debt securities by lowering the maximum exposure that a fund can have in a single company and sector.
• According to the new regulations announced today, a mutual fund debt scheme can’t invest more than 10 per cent of its corpus in a debt instrument issued by a company. (Earlier the limit was 15 per cent.)
• Similarly, the single sector exposure limit for a debt mutual fund scheme has been lowered to 25 per cent from 30 per cent earlier.
• Asia's oldest stock exchange, Bombay Stock Exchange, will get its own postage stamp.
• Note : BSE had recently become the world's fastest stock exchange clocking a median trade speed of six micro seconds.
• Bank of Baroda today announced that it has timely paid over Rs 95 crore as interest to the beneficiaries of its additional tier-I Basel-III compliant bonds issue of Rs 1,000 crore.
• RINL, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant inked an MoU with Andhra Pradesh government. 
• The MoU envisages investment of around Rs. 38,500 crore to take up various projects at Visakhapatnam. 
• RINL - Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited

New Appointments

• Airbus Group today announced that it has appointed Ashish Saraf as Vice-President - Industry Development, Strategic Partnerships and Offsets.

Sports

• Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) today announced the launch of two sports channels in partnership with ESPN, which is making a comeback in India.
• The two channels, SONY ESPN and SONY ESPN HD, will go live on January 17.
• Danish kayaker Rene Holten Poulsen was named the Denmark’s sportsperson of the year 2015.
• Lionel Messi has won the 2015 FIFA Ballon d’ Or Award after beating of the challenge from Ronaldo and Neymar. It was Messi’s record breaking 5th Ballon d’Or Award
• Carli Lloyd of United States has won FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award.

Read more Daily Current Affairs updates from here

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