Important Current Affairs 15th October 2017

Important Current Affairs 15th October 2017

Current Affairs 11th October 2017: APPOINTMENT

Anupam Kher appointed as Chairman, FTII Pune 

Shri Anupam Kher, veteran cine star, has been appointed as Chairman of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.  
●    Shri Kher succeeds Shri Gajendra Chauhan.
●    Shri Kher who has appeared in over 500 films is a recipient of the Padma Shri in 2004 and the Padma Bhushan in 2016 for his contribution in the field of cinema and arts. 
●    The veteran star has won many national and international awards including the ‘Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Comic Role’ five times. 
●    He has appeared in acclaimed international films such as the 2002 Golden Globe nominated Bend It Like Beckham, 2007 Golden Lion award-winning Lust, Caution and 2013 Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook. 
●    He has appeared in more than 100 plays and has also authored the book ‘The Best Thing about You Is You’.
●    Earlier he served as the Chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and was the Director of National School of Drama from 2001 to 2004. 
●    He is also an alumnus of National School of Drama (1978 batch).

Current Affairs 15th October 2017: NATIONAL NEWS

Visit of Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan to Japan 

Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan will undertake an official visit to Japan from 16-18 October 2017 including participating in the 6th Annual LNG Producers Consumer Conference. 
●    The visit of Shri Pradhan is a follow up of the visit of Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe to India in September, 2017. 
●    The visit is important to enhance the bilateral engagements in the Oil and Gas sectors within the overall framework of India-Japan Energy Dialogue. 
●    The visit also aims to enhance cooperation in establishing a transparent, efficient, truly global and balanced LNG market. 
●    The LNG Producer-Consumer Conference is a global annual dialogue to promote active dialogue among LNG producers, consumers and other stakeholders with a view to deepening shared understandings of market trends and to develop a global LNG market. 
●    The conference provides the right opportunity to brief on the Indian Gas sector and the recent policy reforms with the opportunities available for investment to the Ministers and leaders of global gas industry. 

‘Adopt A Heritage’ During Paryatan Parv 

India has always been renowned for its rich cultural heritage. 
●    India’s glorious past and cultural diversity make a potent blend which attracts millions of tourists each year to its tourist destinations. 
●    India's rich heritage is abundantly reflected in the form of numerous temples, palaces, monuments, forts etc. 
●    This has led to an increase in India's tourism particularly at the heritage sites. 
●    Tourism in India has registered a considerable growth in the last few years, ever since additional initiatives were taken by the Government of India to boost India’s image as a destination for tourism.
●    Ministry of Tourism in close collaboration with Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) envisages providing world class tourist facilities at the various heritage sites / monumentsand other tourist sites across the country under the “Adopt A Heritage” initiative.
●    The project would begin with ASI ticketed monuments and would be expanded to other cultural sites across India. 

Raksha Mantri Made her Maiden Visit to CVRDE, Chennai 

The Raksha Mantri Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman made her maiden visit to Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment (CVRDE), Avadi, Chennai, yesterday. 
●    Chairman DRDO & Secretary Department of Defence R&D Dr S. Christopher and Distinguished Scientist & Director, CVRDE Dr. P Sivakumar, made a brief presentation on the achievements and ongoing national programs of CVRDE in Combat Vehicles & Technologies.
●    The dignitaries were taken to various technology centres by Director, CVRDE to witness the products and systems/technologies developed by CVRDE. 
●    The Raksha Mantri has evinced keen interest in the advanced systems like Arjun MBT Mk-II, Arjun Armoured Recovery and Repair Vehicle (ARRV), Arjun Catapult, Unmanned Ground Vehicles, Sub-systems of Light Combat Aircraft –Tejas, Landing Gear, 180 hp engine for Rustom-II, 1000 hp Engine for T-72, 400 hp for BMP-II, besides Armoured Ambulance Tracked, Carrier Command Post Tracked, Bridge Laying Tank (BLT-72). 
●    The respective project leaders highlighted the uniqueness and specialities of their systems to the dignitaries.

The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley holds bilateral Meetings too with counterparts From UK and Sri Lanka 

The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley today participated in the IMFC Restricted Breakfast session in Washington D.C.
●    The discussion sessions focussed on the Dialogue on Policy Challenges. 
●    While observing that the World Economic Outlook for this year and the next was reassuring,  Sh Jaitley took note of the caution advised for the medium term. 
●    He appreciated the focus on cyber security in the Early Warning Exercise and emphasized that the entire global financial system is vulnerable to this threat, more so because it is so interconnected. 
●    In this regard, the Finance Minister highlighted three policy challenges. 
●    The first was the risks posed to emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) by the US Federal Reserve’s bold steps towards restoring normal monetary conditions. 
●    The second was the global slowdown in Investments and the third was employment.

Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) Act 2016 brought into force with effect from 12th October, 2017 
A new Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) Act 2016 which was notified on 22nd March, 2016, has been brought into force with effect from 12th October, 2017. 

●    The Act establishes the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as the National Standards Body of India. 
●    The Act has enabling provisions for the Government to bring under compulsory certification regime any goods or article of any scheduled industry, process, system or service which it considers necessary in the public interest or for the protection of human, animal or plant health, safety of the environment, or prevention of unfair trade practices, or national security. 
●    Enabling provisions have also been made for making hallmarking of the precious metal articles mandatory. 
●    The new Act also allows multiple type of simplified conformity assessment schemes including self-declaration of conformity against a standard which will give simplified options to manufacturers to adhere to the standards and get certificate of conformity. 

Anil Agarwal not to seek board position on Anglo

Mining mogul Anil Agarwal has said he will not seek a board position on blue-chip British miner Anglo American Plc even after becoming its largest shareholder, and instead will support the management.
●    With over 21 per cent stake in the company that owns the iconic diamond brand De Beers, he wants to push for joint venture or technical collaboration between Anglo and his own companies for prospecting for diamonds, copper and coal in India.
●    "It is a fantastic company. There cannot be any company better than that. It is a 100-year old company. We will support the management. We like the management," he told .
●    The family trust of the chairman of diversified miner Vedanta has purchased about 9 per cent more shares, worth up to 1.5 billion pounds, on top of 2 billion pounds spent in March for acquiring a 12.43 per cent holding.
●    The stake has given him an indirect foothold in world's largest diamond producer, De Beers.
●    The mining baron said he would push for collaboration with Vedanta and Anglo for mining, particularly of diamonds in India.
●    Last year, Aggarwal had made an unsuccessful offer to merge part of his mining empire with Anglo American.

Arun Jaitley urges for Urgent need to revise quota share in IMF

India today called for urgent revision of the quota of International Monetary Fund in favour of dynamic emerging market so as to reflect the ground realities of the world.
●    Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also expressed hope that this can be done as part of the 15th General Review of Quotas (GRQ).
●    Addressing the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank here, he said,"There is an urgent case for revising quota shares in favour of dynamic emerging market countries in line with global economic realities to maintain fairness in the governance structure of the Fund".
●    "We should make every effort to complete the 15th Review by the agreed timeline of 2019 Annual Meetings," he asserted.
●    In his address, Jaitley said the risks to global financial and economic stability have significant implications for IMF's operations, in terms of growing amplitude of financial crisis and owing to increasing vulnerability of the international monetary system (IMS) to emerging transitions and growing complexity of economic and financial linkages which could cause correlated financial crises/contagion placing large demands on IMF resources.
●    The Fund needs to be adequately resourced to meet these demands while functioning as a strong quota-based institution.

Government to put Wind power capacity addition put on fast track

The government is planning to auction 3000 MW wind projects in the next four months to upscale the wind capacity addition in the country, sources say. 
●    "An additional bid of 1,500 MW wind projects will be rolled out in October. There will be two more wind bids of the same capacity in December this year and February next year," a government official aware of the developments told. 
●    The successive bids come in backdrop of meagre wind capacity addition this year, as the government is looking to enhance its capacity installation in the wind sector. 
●    “The government wants to speed up the capacity installation in wind projects," the official said. The auctions will be conducted by Solar Energy Corporation of India ( SECI). 
●    Wind auctions conducted on October 4 this year saw record low wind tariffs at Rs 2.64 per unit. 
●    No capacity addition in the wind sector might have also resulted in the low tariffs, as equipment suppliers were left with huge inventory, developers and experts told.