GK and Current Affairs Updates

The Union Cabinet, presided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on 10 March 2016 approved the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP).

•    The decision will enhance domestic oil and gas production, bring substantial investment in the sector and generate sizable employment.
•    The policy also targets the enhancement of transparency and reduction of administrative discretion.
•    The HELP will replace the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).
•    Uniform license for exploration and production of all forms of hydrocarbon
•    The uniform licence will enable the contractor to explore conventional as well as unconventional oil and gas resources including CBM, shale gas/oil, tight gas and gas hydrates under a single license.  
•    The concept of Open Acreage Policy will enable Exploration & Production (E&P) companies choose the blocks from the designated area.
•    Present fiscal system of production sharing based on Investment Multiple and cost recovery /production linked payment will be replaced by an easy to administer revenue sharing model.
•    The earlier contracts were based on the concept of profit sharing where profits are shared between Government and the contractor after recovery of cost.
•    Under the profit sharing methodology, it became necessary for the Government to scrutinize cost details of private participants and this led to many delays and disputes.
•    Under the new regime, the Government will not be concerned with the cost incurred and will receive a share of the gross revenue from the sale of oil, gas etc. This is in tune with Government’s policy of Ease of Doing Business.
•    Cess and import duty will not be applicable on blocks awarded under the new policy.  
•    The policy also provides for marketing freedom for crude oil and natural gas produced from these blocks.  
•    This is in tune with Government’s policy of Minimum Government –Maximum Governance.
•    As compared to NELP royalty rates, HELP provides lower royalty rates for offshore areas to encourage exploration and production.
•    At the same time, royalty rate for onland areas have been kept intact so that revenues to the state governments are not affected.

Egyptian diplomat and former Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit was named as Secretary General of the Arab League on 10 March 2016.

•    The 22-member organization voted unanimously in favor of Aboul Gheit.
•    This appointment was announced by Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa at the end of 22-nation ministerial meeting in Cairo.
•    73-year-old Aboul Gheit, a former ambassador to the United Nations, will succeed Nabil El-Araby.
•    Gheit served as Egypt's foreign minister during the final seven years of Hosni Mubarak's rule, leaving his post in 2011, following the mass protests that toppled the Mubarak.
•    Gheit’s name was proposed for the post by Cairo after the incumbent, Nabil al-Arabi, another Egyptian, declined a second five-year term as Secretary General.
•    Aboul Gheit will take office at a time when the Cairo-based Arab League is facing several tests of its unity.
•    At the top of the list is the war in Syria that has killed more than 270000 people and displaced millions since it erupted in 2011.

The Union Cabinet on 10 March 2016 approved the proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs to amend the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 through the Parliament retrospectively with effect from 8 October 2013.

•    A meeting of the Union Cabinet, presided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, considered the proposal and gave green signal to remove the exception given to Sehajdhari Sikhs in 1944 to vote in the elections for selecting members of the board and the committees constituted under the Act.
•    The Sehajdhari Sikhs were continuously exercising their voting rights in the SGPC elections since 1949.
•    In 2003, the Union Home Ministry debarred the Sehajdhari Sikhs from voting by amending the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925 vide a notification dated 8 October 2003, in exercise of the powers conferred by Parliament under Section 72 of the Punjab Re-organisation Act, 1966.
•    However, the notification was nullified by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 20 December 2011 leaving it to the appropriate and competent legislature to decide whether to amend the Act to that effect.

Services on 13 March 2016 won the Santosh Trophy National Football Championships title. In the summit clash at SEC Railway Stadium in Nagpur, Services defeated host Maharashtra 2-1.

•    Arjun Tudu, a national camper for the SAFF Cup in 2015, scored twice in the space of 11 minutes (26th and 37th) to help Services clinch their fifth title overall.
•    Services took away 5 lakh rupees for winning the tournament while Maharashtra got 3 lakh rupees for finishing runners-up.
•    Santosh Trophy, started in 1941, is an annual Indian football tournament. It is contested by states and government institutions.
•    It was the premier football competition in the country before the National Football League started in the year 1996. The first winners were Bengal, who also leads the all-time winners list with 31 titles to date.
•    The trophy is named after the late Maharaja Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary of Santosh (now in Bangladesh) who had been the President of the Indian Football Association, the football organisation of Bengal and the donators of the trophy.
•    The runners-up trophy, Kamla Gupta Trophy, was also donated by late Dr. SK Gupta, ex-president, IFA in the memory of his wife.
•    Third place teams receive the Sampangi Cup which was presented by the Mysore Football Association (now KSFA) in 1952, in the memory of Sampangi, a renowned footballer from Mysore.

China’s Lin Dan on 13 March 2016 earned his sixth All England badminton title. In the summit clash in Birmingham, Dan defeated compatriot Tian Houwei 21-9, 21-10.

•    Dan, also a five times world champion and double Olympic champion, secured his sixth championship 12 years after his first and four years after his last.
•    Lin, nicknamed Super Dan by his fans, added the title to his collection of wins in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2012.
•    In the women's final later, Nozomi Okuhara of Japan defeated two-time champion Wang Shixian of China 21-11, 16-21, 21-19.
•    The All England Open Badminton Championships, or simply All England, is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious badminton tournaments.
•    Played annually, it developed after the success of the world's first badminton tournament held in Guildford in 1898.
•    The tournament was successfully organised on April 4, 1899, however only three categories (Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles) were originally staged.
•    Both Men's and Women's Singles were added the following year. The first three tournaments were named "The Open English Championships".
•    It was eventually considered (especially after the first Thomas Cup series in 1949) the unofficial world championship of the sport until 1977 when the International Badminton Federation launched its official championships.

A Palestinian primary school teacher from a refugee camp, Hanan Al Hroub, on 13 March 2016 won one-million-dollar Global Teacher Prize. She was awarded for her outstanding contribution to the profession.

•    Hroub, who runs the Samiha Khalil High School in Al-Bireh, Palestine, defeated nine other finalists from around the world, including India’s Robin Chaurasiya to win the award.
•    The 2016 Winner of the Global Teacher Prize was announced by Pope Francis in a ceremony held at the Atlantis Palm Hotel in Dubai.
•    Hroub uses a specialist approach in her school, which she developed, detailed in her book 'We Play and Learn' to overcome tense environments of the region under the shadow of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
•    Hroub's approach has led to a decline in violent behaviour in schools where it was a frequent occurrence. She has also inspired her colleagues to review the way they teach and their classroom management strategies.
•    Robin Chaurasiya runs a not-for-profit school in Mumbai for girls from the city's red light district of Kamatipura.
•    Top ten finalists for the award included
•    Hanan Al Hroub from Palestine
•    Aqeela Asifi from Pakistan
•    Ayub Mohamud from Kenya
•    Colin Hegarty from United Kingdom
•    Joe Fatheree from Unites States of America
•    Kazuya Takahashi from Japan
•    Maarit Rossi from Finland
•    Michael Soskil from Unites States of America
•    Richard Johnson from Australia
•    Robin Chaurasiya from India
•    The Global Teacher Prize is a 1 million US dollar award presented annually to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession.
•    The prize was set up by Kerala-born entrepreneur and educational philanthropist Sunny Varkey, to recognise one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession as well as to shine a spotlight on the important role teachers’ play in society.

Kerala Tourism's campaign on responsible tourism on 11 March 2016 bagged the prestigious Golden City Gate Award at the world's leading travel trade show Internationale Tourismus-Borse Berlin (ITB-Berlin) 2016.

•    The multimedia campaign, titled New Worlds, won the silver prize of 2016 Das Golden Stadttor or Golden City Gate, also known as the Oscar of tourism communication, at the ITB-Berlin 2016.
•    The winning campaign that contained three short films was directed by Malayalam filmmaker Anwar Rasheed.
•    Wolfgang Jo Huschert, President, Jury of the Golden City Gate Award presented the award to Abraham George, President, Kerala Travel Mart.
•    Kerala Tourism had earlier won the Ulysses Prize of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) for its contribution as a global leader to sustainable tourism.
•    The New Worlds campaign was launched internationally by UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai at the World Travel Mart in London.
•    New Worlds portrays the importance of Responsible Tourism initiatives, which have led to several life-changing stories that have become the heart of the campaign.
•    The film has common people instead of actors and models and the stories are set in the actual locations in Kerala.
•    The film, which shows tourists visiting local communities, sharing home-made meals, and watching and engaging in cultural performances, demonstrates the vision that when the world comes to Kerala.
•    The film attempts to present in a real and authentic environment a set of true stories of transformation and preservation involving tourism and the local communities.

British Keyboardist and progressive rock legend Keith Emerson died on 10 March 2016. He was 71.

•    Emerson, the co-founder of British prog-rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, was widely considered one of the top keyboard players of the progressive rock era.
•    Apart from ELP, founded in 1970, Keith Emerson is best remembered for his role in The Nice, formed in 1967. The British musician and composer was born in Yorkshire in 1944.
•    ELP rose to become one of the most popular bands of the 1970s, and were voted in at number seven on Rolling Stone’s 2011 Reader Poll of the best prog-rock acts of all time.
•    Keith Noel Emerson was an English keyboardist and composer. 
•    Emerson played in a number of bands before he found his first commercial success with P. P. Arnold's backing band the Nice in the late 1960s. 
•    He was a founding member of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), one of the early progressive rock super groups, in 1970. Emerson, Lake & Palmer were critically and commercially successful through much of the 1970s, becoming one of the best-known progressive rock groups of the era

On 9th March 2016 Rajya Sabha passed National Waterways Bill, 2015. The Bill seeks to unleash the navigation potential of India’s larger river ways resources.
•    As part of this Bill, under entry 24 of the Union List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, the Union government can make laws on shipping and navigation on inland waterways that are classified as national waterways.
•    The Bill identifies additional 101 waterways as national waterways. It also specifies the extent of development to be undertaken on each waterway.
•    Earlier, the Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on 21 December 2015.
•    The National Waterways Bill, 2015 was introduced in Lok Sabha on 5 May 2015 by the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari.
•    It provides an alternative form of transportation in India. It will also open economic opportunities to new regions.

On 11th March 2016 Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu launched an online Clean My Coach service. 
•    The service allows travelers to get their compartments cleaned by sending an SMS or by using an app or a designated website.
•    As per the scheme, for any cleaning requirement in the coach, passenger will have to send an SMS on a mobile number 58888. 
•    passenger can also use android app ‘Cleanmycoach Indian Railways’ or webpage ‘cleanmycoach.com’ for logging the request.
•    Passenger’s request is immediately acknowledged via SMS on mobile phone along with a code.
•    A message is also sent by the server to the mobile number of On Board House Keeping (OBHS) staff travelling on the same train along with the details of the passengers such as coach number, berth number.
•    OBHS staff contacts the passengers, carries out the cleaning work as per demand.
•    If the passenger is satisfied, he discloses the code received during acknowledgement and OBHS staff in turn sends the same code through SMS and the complaint is then treated as closed. 
•    If the passenger is not satisfied, he/she doesn’t disclose the code and the complaint is treated as not closed.
•    This Clean My Coach service was announced by the Railway Minister in his Rail Budget Speech of 2016-17.