16th May 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Chinese and Indian companies signed 26 agreements for 22 billion US dollars investment in India.
• Prime Minister inaugurates a Centre for Gandhian and Indian Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
• Narendra Modi concludes his China tour and reaches Mongolia on second leg of his three-nation tour.
• This is the first ever Prime Ministerial visit from India to Mongolia.
• Civil nuclear energy, IT and cyber security likely to be high in agenda.
• About Mangolia :
• Mongolia, a landlocked country between China and Russia, has a population of over 2.9 million. 
• Nick name : Land of Blue Skies
• Capital : Ulan Bator (Ulaanbaatar)
• Prime Minister : Chimed Saikhanbileg
• President : Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj
• Currency : Tögrög
• India has asked Switzerland to share information on Indians who have admitted to having accounts in Swiss banks.
• It also expressed readiness to sign a bilateral pact on automatic sharing of information with Switzerland.
• This was conveyed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley when the visiting Swiss Economic Affairs Minister Johann N Schneider-Ammann met him in New Delhi yesterday evening.
• Ahead new US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter's visit to India, the House of Representatives today passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorisation Act ( NDAA) 2016, calling for expansion of the Indo-US defence cooperation and welcoming India's role in providing security in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.
• Canada announced it plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 amid international efforts to create a new framework for addressing climate change.
• Prime Minister : Stephen Harper
• Environment Minister : Leona Aglukkaq

Awards & Honors

• Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari conferred the "Pt. Haridutt Sharma Award" in the field of journalism, writing and social services to Anurradha Prasad, the editor-in-chief of News-24 Channel today.
• In the memory of Pt. Haridutt Sharma, a renowned journalist and eminent writer., this annual award is given in the field of journalism, writing and social services for the outstanding contribution in their respective field. 
• This award consists of cash prize of Rs. 51000/-, citation, trophy, shawl and souvenir. 

People in News

• An Egyptian court today sentenced ousted President Mohammed Morsi to death over his part
  
  in a mass prison break that took place during the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
• Morsi is already serving a 20-year prison term for ordering the arrest and torture of protesters while in power.
• Note : Morsi was Egypt's first freely elected president. 
• A US jury has sentenced Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death by lethal injection.
• Three people were killed and 260 were injured when Tsarnaev, now 21, and his brother placed bombs at the finishing line of the Boston Marathon in 2013.

New Appointments

• The government today appointed M J Joseph as the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in the Ministry of Finance.
• Joseph, a 1979 batch Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) officer, was the Director General of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
• He succeeds Jawahar Thakur (ICAS-1979) who has been appointed as OSD (Accounting Reforms) in the office of CGA. 

Sports

• Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis reclaimed the number one spot in the teams ranking after reaching the final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia today.
• They won titles in Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston Doubles titles this year.

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