Monday, October 20, 2014

16th October 2014 Current Affairs Updates



1) Arvind Subramanian appointed Chief Economic Adviser: Former IMF economist Arvind Subramanian was appointed Chief Economic Advisor in the Finance Ministry. An alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad, Subramanian joins the Finance Ministry at a time when the government has started work for the 2015-16 budget which will be the first proper budget of the Modi government. The post of CEA has been lying vacant since Raghuram Rajan left the Finance Ministry to join the Reserve Bank as Governor in September last year. The Finance Ministry has prepared an interim budget and full fledged budget for 2014-15 without a formal CEA in office. A graduate from St Stephens College, Subramanian has been advising the Indian government in different capacities and has been a member of the Finance Minister's Expert Group on the G-20.

2) ISRO successfully launched navigation satellite IRNSS 1C: Scripting yet another milestone in outer space, Isro successfully launched IRNSS 1C, the third member of the seven satellite constellation of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), in the wee hours of Thursday. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) - C26, carrying IRNSS 1C, lifted off from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 1.32am. The satellite detached from the launch vehicle about 20 minutes after the launch at an altitude of 499.63km soaring with a velocity of 9604.87 metre per second. This was the 27th consecutive successful flight of PSLV.

3) Rajiv Mehrishi replaced Arvind Mayaram as Finance Secretary: The Narendra Modi government has transferred the top civil servant at the finance ministry, Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram, replacing him with Rajiv Mehrishi, the chief secretary of Rajasthan, a state that has pushed dramatic free market reforms in recent months.

4) Kotak Mahindra Bank launched Facebook-based funds transfer platform KayPay: Mumbai headquartered Kotak Mahindra Bank has launched KayPay, a bank agnostic payment product for Facebook users to send money to each other. Users won't have to depend on net banking or have to know the details of the payee, the company said. According to the bank, users can transfer funds by choosing recipients from their Facebook friends list. KayPay is built on top of the mobile based Immediate Payment System launched by the National Payment Corporation of India. Users have to register their bank accounts once to start using the service. KayPay uses Facebook user id & password and a One Time Password (OTP) to authenticate a transaction. Both sender and the receiver receive notification on SMS and Facebook.

5) Modi launched Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Shramev Jayate scheme: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Shramev Jayate scheme, under which he dedicated a Shram Suvidha portal, Labour Inspection scheme and Portability through Universal Account Number for Employees Provident Fund to the nation.



6) World Food Day celebrated: World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. The day is celebrated widely by many other organisations concerned with food security, including the World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. The World Food Day theme for 2014 is Family Farming: “Feeding the world, caring for the earth”.

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