Monday, December 8, 2014

Daily Current Affairs Updates: 04 December 2014



1) East Zone won Deodhar Trophy: East Zone proved to be a hard nut to crack and won the Deodhar Trophy after 11 seasons. The game swung back and forth in a tantalising manner, but East struck crucial blows in the closing stages of the match to beat West by 24 runs in the final held in Mumbai. East Zone won the toss and opted to bat first posted 269 for 8 in the stipulated 50 overs. In reply to the target, West Zone bundled out for 245 in 47.2 overs. The trophy is named after Prof. DB Deodhar who is known as the Grand Old Man of Indian cricket. 

2) Eminent jurist V R Krishna Iyer passed away: Eminent jurist V R Krishna Iyer passed away in Kochi on 4 December 2014 following multiple organ failure. Justice Iyer stood for the rights of the downtrodden and reinterpreted bail jurisprudence as a Supreme Court judge. He was admitted to private Medical Trust hospital on November 24 in Kochi. Justice Iyer, born in a conservative Tamil Brahmin family in Palakad in Kerala, was attracted to communism and had served as a minister in the first democratically-elected Communist government of the world under the late EMS Namboodiripad in the state.

3) BCCI announced 30 probables for World Cup 2015: In what was a huge blow and probably the end of an era, the BCCI on 4 Dec 2014 selected its 30-man World Cup probables list. Where there was some good news for the youngsters, discarded veterans – Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh were not considered for the prestigious event. The Sandeep Patil-led committee met in the day and took the decison. The new list means only four cricketers - MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin have been retained from India's 2011 World Cup winning squad. The BCCI confirmed the entire list of probables through it's official on social-micro blogging Twitter.

4) RBI asked banks to adopt easy norms for m-banking registration: The Reserve Bank of India, on 4 Dec 2014, asked banks to make the registration process for mobile banking services easy, and activate the services at the earliest to expand the reach of mobile banking. Releasing the operative guidelines for mobile banking transactions, the RBI said there is a slow pick-up of mobile banking services despite the high mobile density in the country. Banks should strive to provide options for easy registration for mobile banking services to their customers, it added.

5) Government scrapped subsidised kerosene through PDS: Attacking the subsidy regime, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has scrapped the supply of subsidised kerosene through the Public Distribution System (PDS). The Centre plans to write to States asking them to provide subsidised kerosene only to un-electrified households. States which have achieved near 100 per cent electrification will be incentivised to become kerosene-free, a Finance Ministry source told.

6) Shiv Sena to join Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government in Maharashtra: Shiv Sena will formally become part of the BJP-led state government in Maharashtra. The Fadnavis government will no longer be in minority in the state assembly and will have a strength of 185 in an House of 288 with the addition of 63 Sena MLAs. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced on 4 December 2014 that Sena would be joining the state government. Sena will get 12 ministerial positions in this government out of which five will be Cabinet berths.


7) GSAT-16 launch postponed due to bad weather: The GSAT-16 launch scheduled for early morning on 5 December 2014 has been postponed due to inclement weather conditions, Isro informed. The advanced communication satellite was scheduled for launch at 02:08 hrs (IST) from French Guiana. The satellite was to be inducted into the INSAT/GSAT system. Developed by Isro, GSAT-16 was to carry Ku- and C-band transponders. It is configured to carry a total of 48 communication transponders, the largest by a communication satellite developed by Isro so far, in normal C-band, upper extended C-band and Ku-band. The satellite will boost public and private TV and radio services, large-scale Internet and telephone operations. The new date for the launch has not been disclosed.

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