Daily GK Update: 31st October, 2015

Economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das nominated on RBI Central Board 

i. Union Government has nominated Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das to the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). 

ii. Mr. Dase is IAS officer of 1980 batch from of Tamil Nadu cadre. His nomination is effective from October 30, 2015 and until further orders. 

About Central Board of Directors of RBI 

• RBI’s affairs are governed by the Central Board of Directors (CBD) which also responsible for its general superintendence and direction. 
• Composition: There are 21-members in CBD of RBI. It comprise of Governor , 4 Deputy Governors, 2 Finance Ministry representatives. 
• 10 Directors are nominated by Union Government in order to represent important elements from India’s economy. 
• 4 directors are from local boards of RBI which are headquartered at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and New Delhi.

Paul Ryan elected as 54th Speaker of US House of Representatives

i. Republican Paul Ryan was elected as the 54th speaker of the US House of Representatives after fetching the votes of 236 members by the full House of Representatives. 

ii. Following his election, Ryan was sworn in as Speaker of the House. He took the oath on his own copy of the New American bible and kept the gavel he wielded as Chairman of the powerful tax writing committee. 

National Unity Day observed across India

i. The National Unity Day was observed across India on 31 October 2015 to commemorate the birthday of Sardar Vallabhai Patel. 

ii. On this occasion of 140th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, PM Narendra Modi flagged off Run for Unity at Rajpath in New Delhi.

iii. Moreover, on this day, all ministries and departments of the government and all the state governments and administrators of all the Union Territories organise programmes including the Pledge-taking Ceremony, Run for Unity involving people from all sections of society.

Ministry of Civil Aviation released Revised Draft National Civil Aviation Policy

i. The Ministry of Civil Aviation on 30 October 2015 released Revised Draft National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP 2015).

ii. The policy aims at providing a favourable environment and a level playing field to various aviation sub-sectors, such as Airlines, Airports, Cargo, Maintenance Repairs and Overhaul (MRO) services and so on.

iii. Besides, the scheme also intends to create an eco-system to enable 30 crore domestic ticketing by 2022 and 50 crore by 2027.

Railways launches ‘Vikalp’ for waitlisted passengers to get confirmed berth

i. Railway is launching a new scheme under which waitlisted passengers can get confirmed accommodation in next alternative train if they opt for the option while booking their tickets online.

ii. Known as Viklap, the alternative train accommodation scheme will take off in trains running on Delhi-Lucknow and Delhi-Jammu sectors from November 1, on a pilot basis.

iii. Initially, Vikalp scheme will be available only for the tickets booked through internet for six months and option will be limited to mail and express trains on the two selected routes, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

GSAT-15 to be launched on November 10 from French Guiana

i. ISRO’s latest communication satellite GSAT-15 is all set to be launched on November 10, 2015 from French Guiana on board Ariane 5.

ii. The Indian space agency, as part of augmenting telecommunication services, had earlier launched communication satellites GSAT-14 and GSAT-6, respectively.

iii. The satellite would provide C and Ku band telecommunications and navigation services to India.