Daily Current Affairs – 28th October 2016
1) Two Yazidi women, Nadia Murad Basee and Lamiya Aji Bashar have won the 2016 Sakharov prize.
The Sakharov award ceremony will be held in Strasbourg on 14 December.The announcement of the year’s joint laureates was made following a decision by European Parliament on 27 October 2016.
Basee and Bashar were among thousands of Yazidi girls and women abducted by ISIS militants and forced into sexual slavery in 2014. But, both survived and now campaign for the Yazidi community.
These woman are advocates for the Yazidi community and for women surviving sexual enslavement by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The Sakharov Prize, officially known as the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is annually awarded by the European Parliament. It was established in December 1988 to honour individuals and groups of people who have dedicated their lives to the defense of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
It is awarded annually awarded in memory of Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet scientist and dissident.The prize is accompanied by an award of 50000 Euro. In 2015, the prize was awarded to Raif Badawi.
2) The first National Ayurveda Day was observed on 28 October on the occasion of Dhanwantari Jayanti.
Ayurveda is the traditional Hindu system of medicine based on the idea of balance in bodily systems and uses diet, herbal treatment, and yogic breathing. Dhanvantari is the form of Lord Vishnu. He is considered as the ideal doctor and manifestation of compassion, representing the wisdom of ayurveda in practical application.
The theme for 2016 is ‘Ayurveda for Prevention and Control of Diabetes’. To celebrate this day, the Union Ministry of AYUSH had organized a day-long national seminar on Prevention and Control of Diabetes through Ayurveda in New Delhi.
Beside this, the Ministry also had launched Mission Madhumeha through Ayurveda on the occasion. The Mission Madhumeha will be implemented throughout the country through a specially designed National Treatment Protocol for effective management of Diabetes through Ayurveda.
3) Punjab Directorate has won the 2016 National Cadet Corp (NCC) National Games.
The NCC Games aim to provide the talented sportsmen among the cadet exposure of a major sporting event while preparing them with the requisite matching temperament towards furthering their sporting careers.
The closing ceremony began with hundreds of young blossoming cadets performing a display of a choreographed dance with the theme ‘Vibrant India’. The Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre, presented trophies to the winners at the closing ceremony at Delhi Cantonment.
The ceremony attended by the NCC cadets from 17 directorates all over India, presented a moving picture of aspirational India on their journey to becoming worthy empowered citizens with sound values, inculcated by a common powerful binding force.
4) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted startups to raise external commercial borrowings (ECBs) of up to $3 million.
Under the ECB route, borrowing of startups should be denominated in any freely convertible currency or in Indian Rupees (INR) or a combination thereof. In case of borrowing in INR, the non-resident lender, should mobilise INR through swaps/outright sale undertaken through bank in India.
The new rules issued by RBI aims at boosting innovation and promoting job creation in the country. It will apply to startups looking to raise foreign borrowings and restrictions on such funds will be kept minimum.
Funds can be raised with a minimum maturity of 3 years. There will no cost-ceiling or restriction on the end use of the funds raised. Overseas branches and subsidiaries of Indian banks and overseas wholly-owned subsidiary or joint venture of an Indian company will not be considered as recognised lender.
Any money borrowed from foreign sources for financing the commercial activities in India are called ECBs. It is also defined as money borrowed from foreign resources including the following: (i) Commercial bank loans (ii) Buyers’ credit and suppliers’ credit (iii) Securitised instruments such as Floating Rate Notes and Fixed Rate Bonds etc. (iv) Credit from official export credit agencies and commercial borrowings from the private sector window of Multilateral Financial Institutions such as World Bank, ADB, AFIC, CDC, etc.
5) The Union Cabinet has approved signing and ratification of an Agreement between India and Estonia on the transfer of sentenced persons.
This agreement will facilitate the Indian prisoners imprisoned in Estonia or vice-versa for serving remaining part of their sentence in their country and be near to their families. It will also facilitate their social rehabilitation.
India had enacted Repatriation of Prisoners Act, 2003 under which foreign prisoners are transferred to country of their origin to serve the remaining part of their sentence and transfer of prisoners of Indian origin convicted by a foreign court to serve their sentence in India.
6) The Union Cabinet has given approval to formation of the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) at Berhampur in Odisha.
It will being its operations from a transit or temporary campus from the Academic Year 2016-17 for the initial three years i.e. till 2016-19. It will be established under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and it will start of its 2016-17 academic session from 1 August 2016.
The IISER have been declared as Institutes of National Importance under the NITSER Act, 2012. These Institutes are envisaged to carry out research in areas of science and provide quality science education at Under-Graduate and Post-Graduate level.
Earlier, there were five IISERs at Pune, Kolkata, Bhopal, Mohali and Thiruvananthapuram. In 2015, new IISER was started at Tirupati.
Union Cabinet also gave approval for introduction of National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016. This bill will pave way for inclusion of IISER, Tirupati and IISER, Berhampur in Second Schedule of National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (NITSER) Act, 2007.
7) The Union Cabinet has approved the establishment and operationalisation of a National Academic Depository (NAD).
The Budget Speech of 2016-17 of the Finance Benefit, Arun Jaitley, incorporated the commitment to establish a Digital Depository for school learning certificates, degrees and other academic awards of Higher Education Institutions, on the pattern of a Securities Depository.
The National Academic Depository aims at bringing another dimension and enhancement of the vision of Digital India. It will be established and operationalised within the next three months and will be rolled out throughout the country in 2017-2018.
It will provide digital or a printed copy of the academic award with security features to the students or other authorized users.It will verify academic awards online on the same day of request initiated by any authorized user.
It will be operationalised by NSDL Database Management Limited (NDML) and CDSL Ventures, Limited (CVL) – two of the wholly owned subsidiaries of the Depositories registered under Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act, 1992.
8) The Union Agricultural Ministry has constituted a High-Level Committee to monitor the bird flu situation.
The Committee will be headed by Munialappa, Joint Commissioner in the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries (DADF).
The committee will have representatives from Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Department of Agriculture Research and Extension (DARE) and the Delhi government.
A control room, with telephone numbers 011-23384190 and 09448324121, will provide advice and help round the clock. Besides monitoring the situation, the committee will assist the state governments in taking steps to contain the spread of avian influenza.
National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Indian Veterinary Research Institute and four regional laboratories will assist the state governments and will get samples tested in an emergency response manner.
Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, is an infectious viral disease of birds. Most avian influenza viruses do not infect humans but some of them can cause serious infections in people.
9) The Union Cabinet has approved the first Cadre Review of Indian Posts & Telecommunications Accounts and Finance Service (IP&TAFS).
The Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service is a Group A Central Civil Services of the Union of India.The Service was started in the year 1972 for prudent and professional management of the finances of the Department of Posts and Department of Telecommunications, which were the sole provider of the communications needs of the country at that time.
In the Department of Posts, the IP&TAFS is entrusted with the functions of finance advice, budgeting, tariff and costing, accounting and internal audit.
The features of the Cadre Review of IP&TAFS are:
1) Reduction of the total strength of the cadre from 420 to 376.
2) Creation of one Apex level post of Controller General of Communication Accounts (CGCA).
3) Creation of one additional HAG+ level post taking the grade strength to 2.
4) Creation of two additional HAG level posts taking the grade strength from 6 to 8.
5) Creation of 18 additional SAG level posts taking the grade strength from 37 to 55.
6) Reduction in JAG level posts from 111 to 90.
7) Reduction in STS level posts from 198 to 86.
8) Creation of 21 JTS level posts taking the grade strength from 67 to 88.
9) Creation of 46 Posts to be operated as Reserves.
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