4th December 2014 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• In a statement after India-Japan Joint Working Group Meeting on ICT, in New Delhi today, the two countries announced the decision to work on the following five areas which are to be implemented as India-Japan joint projects:
1. Green ICT (Green Mobile Base Station project)
2. Cyber Security Cooperation (Japan-India Combat Spam project)
3. Cooperative project for detecting symptoms and quick response to cyber attacks (PRACTICE)
4. ICT for Disaster Management (ICT4DM) ICT Use in disaster-affected areas project
5. ICT Application for Social and Economic Challenges (National ID Application and Utilization Platform project)
• US President Barack Obama has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to shake up what he called the bureaucratic inertia in India.
• Speaking at a business round table in Washington today, he said Mr Modi has impressed him with his willingness on the matter.
• Mr Obama, however, said it is a long-term project and one would have to see how successful Prime Minister Modi is in his efforts.

National Affairs

• India celebrates 43rd Navy Day today
  
• The day is celebrated to commemorate the start of Operation Trident during the 1971 India-Pakistan War.
• The one-night attack the Indian Navy sank three vessels near the largest Pakistani port of Karachi. Operation Trident resulted in first use of anti ship missiles in the region.
• The Supreme Court has set up a special 'Social Justice Bench' to exclusively hear cases concerning social issues particularly those related to women, children and underprivileged saying that specialized approach is needed for dealing with these matters.
• The bench which will assemble every Friday at 2pm from December 12.
• The special bench will comprise justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit.
• 7th Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFES) began today.
• All central trade unions will hold a nation wide strike tomorrow to protest against the proposed labour laws amendments which they termed as pro-corporate and anti-worker.
• The trade unions including All India Trade Union Congress, Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh, Indian National Trade Union Congress, Centre of Indian Trade Unions will take part in the protest.
• The trade unions are also opposing disinvestment of public sector undertakings and FDI in defence production, railways and insurance.

People in News

• A Sikh woman Preet Didbal was elected as a council member of California's Yuba City that has huge concentration of Sikhs in comparison to other cities.

Science & Technology

• ISRO's multi-band communication satellite GSAT-16 is ready for launch  on-board Arianespace's rocket on December 5 from the spaceport of Kourou, French Guiana

Deaths

• Former Supreme Court Judge and renowned social activist Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer (100 years) passed away in Kochi today. 

Business & Economy

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today asked banks to make registration process for mobile banking services easy and activate services at the earliest to expand the reach of mobile banking in the country.
• Releasing the operative guidelines for mobile banking transactions, RBI said there is a slow pick-up of mobile banking services despite the high mobile density in the country and banks should strive to provide options for easy registration for mobile banking services to their customers. 
• HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank cut retail fixed deposit rates.
• ICICI Bank has lowered it deposit rates for customers within the Rs 1 crore bracket, for maturities between 390 days to 2 years by 25 basis points (bps) to 8.75%. These rates have been effective from November 28 thus lowering the maximum interest rate offered by it to 8.75% from 9% earlier.
• HDFC Bank has also trimmed its retail term deposit rates maturing between 46 days to one year by 25-50 basis points. These rates have be effective from December 1.
• The government eased Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms for the construction development sector, which is expected to provide a substantial boost to the sector in terms of greater foreign capital inflows.

Sports

• East Zone lifts Deodhar Trophy, beating West Zone by 24 runs
• BCCI today announced the list of 30 probables for the upcoming Cricket World Cup 2015.
• Senior players Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan have been left out of India's 30-member probables list for the tournament.
• Defending Champions will look forward to defend their title in the World Cup which will be held in Australia and New Zealand.
• Although team is expected to be selected among these probables but still there are 2 month left to select the final 15.
• Sports Ministry requests Amateur International Boxing Association to revoke boxer Sarita Devi's suspension.

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