24th January 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• US President Barack Obama has left for a three-day visit to India today's evening.
• The White House said that Obama will be accompanied by the First Lady Michelle Obama, and a delegation that will include several top officials.
• 1st Day :
• He is expected to touch down in Delhi at 10 am tomorrow at the Air Force Station, Palam.
• On his arrival, he will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhawan by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• Thereafter, he will pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi at the Rajghat and participate in a tree planting event there.
• In the evening, he is scheduled to meet embassy personnel and families. He will then drive down to the Rashtrapati Bhawan to attend the state dinner with Mr Pranab Mukherjee.
• 2nd Day :
• On Monday, he will participate in the Republic Day celebrations with the First Lady.
• In the afternoon, Obama and Modi will participate in a CEO forum round table and deliver remarks at a US-India Business Summit.
• 3rd Day : 
• On Tuesday, Modi and Obama will jointly address the nation from All India Radio in the programme, ‘Mann Ki Baat’.
• The US President will also give an address at the Siri Fort Auditorium.
• As per the initial plan Obama was to visit Taj Mahal along with the US first lady Michelle Obama on January 27.
• But he cuts short his trip and will leave India after his address at Siri Fort Auditorium to meet the new king of Saudi Arabia.
• India has declared National Mourning today as a mark of respect to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia who died yesterday

National Affairs

• Today (24th January 2015) is National Girl Child Day.
• This day is celebrated to increase the awareness among people about all the inequalities faced by the girl child in the society.
• Inequality about girl child is a vast problem which includes many areas like inequality in education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, protection, honour, child marriage and so many.
• "Father of Indian Nuclear Programme" PadmaBhushan Homi Jahangir Bhabha's (30 October 1909 – 24 January 1966) 49th Death Anniversary today.
• The High Level Committee (HLC) for Restructuring of Food Corporation of India (FCI) chaired by Shanta Kumar has submitted its report to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.

People in News

• Thailand’s military-appointed legislature has voted to impeach former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
• She was impeached for her role in overseeing a government rice subsidy program that lost billions of dollars.

Business & Economy

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has amended a regulation on “Export and Import of Indian Currency” to allow individuals to use the notes in Nepal and Bhutan.
• According to this amendment, individuals from India could carry 1,000- and/or 500-rupee Indian currency (IC) notes to Nepal, up to the limit of IRs 25,000.
• Earlier, the Indian central bank had banned the use of the notes in Nepal, citing security concerns. Travelers were allowed to carry with them IC notes up to IRs 100 denomination.
• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today hinted at not raising tax rates and providing incentives for manufacturing in the coming Budget while asserting that "structural changes" will have to be made to get the economy to 8-9 per cent growth.
• State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest public sector bank, has signed a loan agreement for 100 million euro (about Rs 700 crore) with European Investment Bank (EIB) for lending to private businesses in the country.
• This is the third tranche of a total sanctioned loan of 200 million euro by EIB.

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