6th November 2014 - Important Current Affairs updates

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National Affairs

• 3-day National Children Film Festival to kickstart from 14th November 2014 in Delhi.
• This year's theme is 'Swachhta'.
• In order to create awareness about northeastern states, the second edition of the four day North East Festival will begin in Delhi Friday.
• This year's theme is 'Insurgence to Resurgence'
• Madhya Pradesh cabinet today approved state government's ambitious defense products investment policy aimed at helping firms willing to invest Rs 500 crore or more for setting up public and private sector defence production units in vicinity of Katni, Itarsi, and Jabalpur where ordnance factories already exist.
• Madhya Pradesh has become the first state to formulate such a  policy in the country.
• The first ever 'Dandauti Parikrama' of the holy city Mathura began today.
• Dandauti Parikrama refers to the practice of covering the entire distance of 'parikrama' (circumambulation) by lying down and rolling over.
• Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi was at the centre of a controversy over appointment of his son-in-law Devendra Kumar as his personal assistant, evoking sharp criticism following which Kumar resigned from the post.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Varanasi tomorrow on a two-day visit. 
• It will be his first visit to his Lok Sabha constituency after assuming power.
• Modi is likely to expand his council of ministers on Sunday with top BJP leaders maintaining that at least six new faces, including Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar are expected to be inducted.
• Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is on two day visit to Israel for a bilateral dialogue where he is expected to discuss some pertinent issues including how to tackle the ISIS nuisance. 
• He is likely to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who recently visited India.
• He is also expected to press for India and Israel signing a Free Trade Agreement that is under discussion since 2008.
• He will discuss the need for India and Israel to sign Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as there is a need to diversify trade. As of now, it has been limited to mostly diamond trade.

International Affairs

• Today (6th November 2014) is International Day for Preventing Exploitation of Environment in War and Armed Conflict (declared by UN in 2001)
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his debut among the world's most powerful people, ranked 15th on the Forbes list topped by Russian President Vladimir Putin who pipped his US counterpart Barack Obama for a second year in a row.
  
• This list consists the names of 72 most powerful people in the world.
• The next Indian after PM Modi on the list is Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani at 36th place
• This list also included the names of Arcelor Mittal Chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal at 57th and Microsoft's Indian-born CEO Satya Nadella at 64th.
• This year, there are 12 newcomers on the list, including PM Modi and Egypt President Abdel el-Sisi.
• A notable omission from the list was Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, who was the highest ranked Indian last year at 21.
• Top 5 in the list of world's most powerful people:
1. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
2. Barack Obama, President of the US
3. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
4. Pope Francis, Head of the Roman Catholic Church
5. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi articulated his strong desire to further expand and strengthen India’s relations with Israel, both in traditional areas as well as in new areas of cooperation.
• Navy Chief Admiral R K Dhowan will tomorrow hand over the second Indian Fast Attack Craft (FAC) to the Seychelles that will strengthen its Coast Guard against piracy and other threats. 

Business & Economy

• To clamp down on cheque-related fraud cases, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked banks to alert account holders by a phone call and contact the base branch in case of non-home cheques before clearing high value payments.
• The RBI also asked banks to send an SMS alert to payer/drawer when cheques are received for clearing and examine cheques under UV lamp for clearance beyond Rs 2 lakh.
• The India Economic Summit, organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is being held in New Delhi between 4 and 6 November ended today.
• Defence and finance minister Arun Jaitley launched this summit.
• India needs to invest $250 billion over the next five years to tackle chronic energy shortages and provide power for all its 1.2 billion people, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said
• State-miner Coal India (CIL) is looking to double its production to a billion tonnes in the next five years
• In a major recruitment drive, India’s second-largest software services firm Infosys plans to hire over 2,100 people in the U.S. over the next few months to expand capabilities across domains, including digital, big data, analytics and cloud.

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