17th November 2014 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed Indian Community in Sydney
• He assured a visa on arrival facility for Australian tourists and announced a two-month deadline for the long-pending merger of OCI and PIO status to woo the Indian diaspora from whom he sought support for his ambitious Clean India campaign.

National Affairs

• Nation Paid Tributes to great Indian freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai  (28 January 1865 – 17 November 1928) on his death anniversary.
• He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari (The Lion of Punjab) also known as "Sher-E- Punjab" in Punjabi.
• He was the founder of Punjab National Bank.
• Delhi Metro is one of the six Indian projects to feature in the prestigious "Infrastructure 100: World Markets Report" compiled by the reputed international accounting firm KPMG.
• Yoga exponent Ramdev Baba has been provided with Z-category security by the central government taking into account his "vulnerability to attacks from his opponents".
• The Supreme Court grants 4 more weeks to CBI, to collect details about all registered NGOs, in the country and whether they file balance sheets before the authorities.
• A bench comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice A K Sikri asked the probe agency to write to the chief secretaries of the states which are not providing the details despite the court order in this regard.
• The court in July had granted three more months to CBI to provide details about all registered NGOs.
• The Department of Personnel and Training, DoPT, has issued an order including autism in the category for disabled children.
• The order says the government employees who have children suffering from autism will be exempted from routine transfers and they will not be asked to take voluntary retirement on refusing such postings.

Awards & Honors

• The Assam government has presented the First State Bravery Award to Gunjan Sarma in Guwahati today.
• The 15 year old Gunjan, a resident of Sivsagar district has been selected for the first ever bravery award for showing exemplary courage in saving lives of 10 children from her school who was taken hostage by a gunman on December 4.
• The brave girl volunteered to be taken hostage by a gunman but later left abandoned at dense forest along the Assam- Nagaland border.
• Renowned classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj conferred with Sumitra Charat Ram Award for Lifetime Achievement by I&B Minister Arun Jaitley.

Business & Economy

• In view of popular demand, the government will tomorrow relaunch saving instrument Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), wherein the invested money will get doubled in 8 years and 4 months.
• The KVP, which will be relaunched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will be available in the denomination of Rs 1,000; 5,000; 10,000 and 50,000. There will be no upper ceiling on investment.
• Over 71 million bank accounts have been opened through the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana so far in the villages in India and the money deposited amounts to Rs.5,000 crore, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Sydney in his address at the Allphones Arena today.
• The Adani group’s proposed plan to build a 7 billion dollar coal mine was cleared by Australia’s Queensland state, which also announced a major investment in rail infrastructure to support the Indian conglomerate’s mega project.

Sports

• Indian batsman Suresh Raina today joined the Hockey India League (HIL) franchise team, Uttar Pradesh Wizards, as its co-owner.
• The Supreme Court-appointed Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee, which investigated the allegations of spot fixing and betting in the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), gave clean chit to sidelined BCCI Chief N. Srinivasan.
• The report said that Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was involved in betting.
• World champions India consolidated its top rank on the ICC ODI Team Rankings after sweeping the series against Sri Lanka, which concluded in Ranchi.

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