GK and Current Affairs Updates

The Lok Sabha on 9 August 2016 passed the Employee’s Compensation (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to reduce litigation in cases of disputes arising over compensation to workers. 
•    The Bill seeks to amend the Employee’s Compensation Act, 1923. 
•    This law provides payment of compensation to employees and their dependents in the case of injury by industrial accidents, including occupational diseases.
•    It makes it mandatory for employer to inform the employee of his right to compensation under the parent Act. 
•    Such information must be given in writing in Hindi, English or relevant official language at the time of employment.
•    It penalizes an employer if he fails to inform his employee of his right to compensation.  Such penalty may be between fifty thousand to one lakh rupees.
•    Any dispute related to an employee’s compensation will be heard by a Commissioner, only if the amount in dispute is ten thousand rupees. 
•    It allows Union Government to further raise this amount. 
•    It deletes the provision of withholding payments towards the employee if an employer has appealed against a Commissioner’s order in High Court.
 

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Spanish giants Real Madrid have come back from a goal down to defeat Sevilla 3-2 at the Lerkendal Stadium and win the UEFA Super Cup.
•    The UEFA Super Cup is an annual football match organized by UEFA and contested by the reigning champions of the two main European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. 
•    It takes place at the start of the domestic season, in mid-August, normally on a Tuesday.
•    Real Madrid Club de Fútbol commonly known as Real Madrid, or simply as Real outside Spain frontiers, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain.
•    Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the team has traditionally worn a white home kit since inception. 
•    The word Real is Spanish for Royal and was bestowed to the club by King Alfonso XIII in 1920 together with the royal crown in the emblem. 
•    The team has played its home matches in the 85,454-capacity Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in downtown Madrid since 1947.
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Veteran film producer, script and screenplay writer Panchu Arunachalam passed away on 9 August 2016 following brief illness. 
•    He was 75. 
•    He was survived by his wife, two daughters and two sons.
•    He introduced Ilayaraja as music director in his film Annakili and made more films starring Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth.
•    He proved his mettle by penning super-hit songs including Manmagale Marumagale Vaa Vaa in Sharada and Pon Ezhil Poothathu Puthu Vaanil in Kalangarai Vilakkam and Poopola Poopala in Naanum Oru Penn. 
•    He also wrote dialogues for Sivaji starrer Avanthan Manithan.
•    He is popular for writing over 100 Tamil films, including hits like Murattu Kaalai, Sakalakala Vallavan and Apoorva Sagodhargal. 
•    He worked with Rajinikanth in 23 films, including Kazhugu, Pokkiri Raja and Paayum Puli among others.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on 10 August 2016 dedicated Unit 1 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant to the nation.
•    Besides, PM Modi announced that five more reactors of 1000 megawatt each will come up in the same location.
•    The reactors are being built jointly by Nuclear Power Corporation of India and Atomstroy export company, a subsidiary of Rosatom (the regulatory body of the Russian nuclear complex).
•    The power plant is updated with most modern Russian technologies.
•    The first reactor of the plant attained criticality on 13 July 2013 at 11:05 P.M.
•    Unit 1 was operating at 73% capacity by April 2014.
•    Unit 1 attained its maximum capacity of 1000 MWe at 1:20 P.M. on 7 June 2014.
•    It started commercial operation from 31 December 2014.
•    Almost 85 per cent of the funding of the project has come from the State loan of the Russian Federation.

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Shri Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs launched two important initiatives of the Ministry of MSME, viz. MSME Databank Portal and Online Finance Facilitation Web Portal on the sidelines of 14th Meeting of the National Board of MSME at Vigyan Bhawan, today. Shri Kalraj Mishra, Union Minister for MSME, Shri Giriraj Singh and Shri Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary, Minister of State for MSME were present on the occasion.
•    The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, a branch of the Government of India, is the apex body for the formulation and administration of rules, regulations and laws relating to micro, small and medium enterprises in India.
•    Ministry of MSME is making online Census of the MSMEs in the country for the first time by launching a comprehensive databank on http://www.msmedatabank.in This will not only save the efforts and money required for physical Census but will also enable the MSME units and the various Associations to furnish data on click of the button and sitting in their units. 
•    The MIS dashboard of the databank will provide real time information on various types of the MSMEs registered on the databank. 
•    The databank will eventually will be used for public procurement purposes and the PSUs will make use of the data for procuring from MSMEs.
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Dinesh Kumar Khara on 9 August 2016 was appointed Managing Director (MD) of State Bank of India (SBI).
At present, Khara is working as MD and Chief Executive Officer of SBI Funds Management Pvt Ltd.
On the other hand, Ashok Kumar Garg and Raj Kamal Verma have been appointed as Executive Director (ED) of Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India respectively. 
Gopal Murli Bhagat and Himanshu Joshi have been appointed as ED of Corporation Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce respectively.
•    State Bank of India is an Indian multinational, public sector banking and financial services company.
•    It is a government-owned corporation.
•    Its headquarters is located in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
•    As of 2014-15, it had assets of 310 billion US dollar.
•    It is ranked 232nd on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations as of 2016.
•    It is one of the Big Four banks of India, along with ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank.
•    The Presidency banks merged on 27 January 1921, and the re-organised banking entity took as its name Imperial Bank of India.
•    On 1 July 1955, the Imperial Bank of India became the State Bank of India.
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Rajya Sabha on 9 August 2016 passed the Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Bill, 2016. The bill seeks to amend four laws namely-
•    Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI)
•    Recovery of Debts due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993 (RDDBFI)
•    Indian Stamp Act, 1899
•    Depositories Act, 1996
•    The bill aims to improve ease of doing business and facilitate investment leading to higher economic growth and development.
•    The Bill increases the retirement age of Presiding Officers of Debt Recovery Tribunals from 62 years to 65 years.
•    It also increases the retirement age of Chairpersons of Appellate Tribunals from 65 years to 67 years.
•    It makes Presiding Officers and Chairpersons eligible for reappointment to their positions.
•    It allows banks to file cases in tribunals having jurisdiction over the area of bank branch where the debt is pending.
•    It states that under certain procedures will be undertaken in electronic form.
•    It provides details of procedures that the tribunals will follow in case of debt recovery proceedings.

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The Lok Sabha has unanimously passed the Employee’s Compensation (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to reduce litigation in cases of disputes arising over compensation to workers. 
•    The Bill seeks to amend the Employee’s Compensation Act, 1923. 
•    This law provides payment of compensation to employees and their dependents in the case of injury by industrial accidents, including occupational diseases. 
•    Duty to Mandatory for employer to inform the employee of his right to compensation under the parent Act. 
•    Such information must be given in writing in Hindi, English, or the relevant official language at the time of employing him. 
•    Any dispute related to an employee’s compensation will be heard by a Commissioner (with powers of a civil court) only if the amount in dispute is ten thousand rupees. 
•    It allows Union Government to further raise this amount. 
•    In parent Act, appeals related to a substantial question of law from the Commissioner’s order will lie before the High Court. 
•    Earlier in the parent Act, any payments towards the employee can be temporarily withheld if an employer has appealed against a Commissioner’s order in High Court. 
•    This provision has been deleted.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 August 2016 launched 70 Saal Azaadi, Yaad Karo Kurbani celebrations in Alirajpur, Madhya Pradesh. Alirajpur is the birthplace of freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad.
The Yaad Karo Kurbani is a 15-day programme. It is aimed at celebrating 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement and 70 years of Independence.
•    The 70 Saal Azaadi, Yaad karo Qurbani campaign is aimed at developing a feeling in every person that nation is first and individual is secondary.
•    It seeks to provide an opportunity for the people to recall the supreme sacrifices made by freedom fighters during freedom struggle.
•    The goal of the campaign is to inform the youngsters about the unsung heroes and the history of the freedom struggle.
•    The Quit India Movement is also known as the India August Movement (August Kranti).
•    It was a civil disobedience movement launched at the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee.
•    It was launched by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on 8 August 1942, during World War II.
•    The movement’s demand was an end to British Rule of India.
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The Union Government has announced that the Non-Performing Assets (NPA) of commercial banks have increased by around 4% in the last one year (March 2015 to March 2016). 
•    It was announced by Union Minister of State for Finance (MoS) Santosh Gangwar in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. 
•    The NPA of banks was 5.43 percent in March 2015 which has risen to 9.32 percent in March 2016. 
•    The high incidences of NPAs are mainly related to power, road, steel, textiles and other sectors. 
•    NPA amounts are related to 417 stalled infrastructure projects where public sector banks have invested is over 66478 crore rupees. 
•    NPAs are loans made by a bank or finance company on which repayments or interest payments are not being made on time. 
•    The loan is considered to be a NPA once the borrower fails to make interest or principal payments for 90 days. 
•    NPA is any asset of a bank which is not producing any income. It affects the profitability & liquidity of the banks.
•    It adversely affects the value of bank in terms of market credit and widens assets and liability mismatch. 
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