GK and Current Affairs Updates

The new finding suggests the oxygen molecules were incorporated into the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its formation.European Space Agency (ESA)'s Rosetta spacecraft has been studying the comet for over a year and has detected an abundance of different gases pouring from its nucleus  which includes Water vapour, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are the most prolific, with a rich array of other nitrogen-, sulphur- and carbon-bearing species, and noble gases.The amount of molecular oxygen detected showed a strong relationship to the amount of water measured at any given time, suggesting that their origin on the nucleus and release mechanism are linked. In addition, no ozone was detected. 
Facts about Rosetta spacecraft
1. Rosetta is a space probe built by the European Space Agency launched on 2 March 2004. 
2. Along with Philae, its lander module, Rosetta is performing a detailed study of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (67P).
3. On its 10 year journey towards comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the spacecraft has passed by two asteroids: 2867 Steins (in 2008) and 21 Lutetia (in 2010).
4. Next phase of the mission- Rosetta will accompany the comet through perihelion (August 2015) until the nominal end of the mission.
 

Facts about Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko :
1. Like all comets, Churyumov-Gerasimenko is named after its discoverers. 
2. It was first observed in 1969.
3. Comet 67P is one of numerous short period comets which have orbital periods of less than 20 years and a low orbital inclination.
4. Since their orbits are controlled by Jupiter's gravity, they are also called Jupiter Family comets.

Hockey India has appointed Neil Hawgood as the chief coach of Indian women's hockey team. He will train them for the next year Rio olympics. Under the leadership of Hawgood, Indian hockey team has won, 1 -the Hockey World League Round 2 in 2013, 2-silver in the Asian Champions Trophy, 3-bronze medal at Asian Games 2014, and  4-bagged 5th position at Commonwealth Games 2014.

This time after the gap of 36 years,Indian Hockey team has been selected for olympics.
Achievements of Indian Women Hockey team:
1.Summer Olympics
During the 2008 Women's Field Hockey Olympic Qualifier, the team ranked fourth in the "Qualifying Two" event. Rani Devi received the Most Promising Young Player of the Tournament award.2.Hockey World Cup During the 2001 Women's Hockey World Cup Qualifier, the team ranked 7th Sanggai Chanu received the Young Player of the Tournament award.  3.Hockey Champions Challenge During the 2002 Hockey Champions Challenge, Jyoti Sunita Kullu received the Topscorer award for five goals.  

India and France have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on preserving written heritage by conserving, developing and publicity of written heritage at the National Library.  The Union Ministry of Culture and National Library of France have sealed it.
The signing was attended by the National Library of France President Bruno Racine. The Ministry of Culture has also emphasised on the project of building a National Virtual Library of India.
Under the MoU, 
1.The two countries would collaborate in preserving, identifying and publicising written heritage and iconographies heritage. 
2. The two countries will share expertise such as description of Indian manuscripts in Sanskrit and Tamil 

Advantages of signing this MoU:  help in the development of digital co-operation, sharing of technical and other expertise, competency and skill-building and cultural co-operation between both the countries.  

Senior IRS officer Najib Shah was today appointed as Chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) . The Department of Personnel and Training has approved the appointment. Najib Shah, a 1979 batch officer of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise). He was also been Director General of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) .
Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) : 
a. It is the nodal national agency responsible for administering Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax & Narcotics in India.
b. It was established in the year 1855 by the then British Governor General of India, to administer customs laws in India and collection of import duties / land revenue. It is one of the oldest government departments of India.

In order to protect minority investors, India is ranked 8^th globally by World Bank. Also among BRICS countries India secured the first position .
Many developed countries are left behind such as US, Germany and Japan. China secured 134^th position.  
 Top 7 countries are :
1.    Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong jointly at the first position. ,Malaysia and the UK share the fourth position, Canada (6^th rank) and Slovenia (7^th) India shares the eighth position with Albania, Ireland, Israel, Mongolia and Korea

India strengthened minority investor protections by :
a.    requiring greater disclosure of conflicts of interest by board members, 
b.    increasing the remedies available in case of prejudicial related-party transactions and
c.     introducing additional safeguards for shareholders of privately held companies. 

54 year old Bhandari, the Vice-president of CPN-UML and widow of late general secretary of the party Madan Bhandari, elected as first woman president , weeks after it adopted a new landmark Constitution that declared the country a secular state.The president is the ceremonial head in Nepal while the prime minister is the nation's leader.The Constitution of Nepal, which came into effect on September 20, 2015, replacing the Interim Constitution of 2007. The Constitution was drafted by the Second Constituent Assembly following the failure of the First Constituent Assembly to produce a constitution in its mandated period.
 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the 10^th most admired personality globally, as per a new survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Other rank holders of survey :
1.    Late Nelson Mandela 
2.     Pope Francis, 
3.    Tesla Motors' CEO Elon Musk 
4.     Bill Gates
10.    Indian Prime minister Modi and 
11.    US investor Warren Buffett ..

World Economic Forum : The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

According to the world bank list, Singapore is the best place to do business in the world.
List of top 10 countries is :
1. Singapore
2. New Zealand
3. Denmark
4. Korea
5. Hong Kong
6. United Kingdom
7. United States
8. Sweden
9. Norway
10. Finland
Rank is taken out from 189 countries. Many issues were compared such as dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property and trading across borders.
Various steps were taken by Singapore to secure its position. Some of these are :
a.    introducing a new electronic litigation system that streamlines litigation proceedings; 
b.    it made transferring property easier by introducing an online procedure for property transfer;
c.     it improved its credit information system by guaranteeing by law borrowers’ right to inspect their own data; 
d.    it improved its credit information system by collecting and distributing information on firms; and
e.     it made starting a business easier by combining tax registration with business registration on a single online form. 
India secured 130th position. The position is improved from the last year as many initiatives have been taken by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion ("DIPP") . These are :
A. Industrial Licenses
The application for Industrial License ("IL") and Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum ("IEM") can be made online. This will facilitate filing applications and online payment of service charges. Fourteen services are brought into one portal which will work as a single window portal.The Ministry of Home Affairs ("MHA") has stated that it will grant security clearance on IL applications within twelve weeks.
B. Export-Import Documents
Initially the documents required for export and import of goods was ranging upto eleven documents. Now the number of documents required for export and import of goods are limited to three documents.
C. Ministry of Defence ("MOD")
The list of defence products requiring an IL has been issued. This list excludes large number of parts/ components, castings/ forgings etc. from the purview of an IL.Further, products with dual use (i.e. having military as well as civilian applications), unless classified as defence item, will also not require an IL from the defence perspective. In case of these items only an IEM has to be filed.
D. Ministry of Corporate Affairs ("MCA")
The Companies Amendment Act, 2015 ("Amendment Act") has been passed. This Amendment Act amongst other important changes removes requirements of minimum paid-up capital and common seal for companies.
E. Ministry of Environment and Forests ("MOEF")
The process of applying for Environment and Forests clearances has been made online through MOEF portal.
F. Ministry of Labour and Employment ("Labour Ministry")
1.    The Labour Ministry has set up a unified portal for registration of Units for Labour Identification Number, reporting of Inspection, submission of returns and grievance redressal.
2.    The registration with Employees Provident Fund Organization and Employees State Insurance Corporation ("ESIC") has been automated. The ESIC registration number is being provided on a real-time basis.
The focus of the 'ease of doing business policy' is mainly on cutting out the tedious documentation and unnecessary paper work and getting the work done in a shorter time span. It was imperative to take steps to address the concerns and delays, to enable the industry to grow. This was a much needed step to simplify compliance and to make India more investor friendly.

Narendra Nayak is appointed as India managing director. He replaces sunil lalvani. Who had quit the organization in June. He will be responsible for driving Blackberry’s software & services business through all channels in India. He was linguanext in venture funded company linguanext technologies before that he has executive roles in CSC, IBM. Motorola & Digital equipment in India.

To facilitate travel throughout the Schengen area & help issue long term visas more easily, France will issue biometric visas to Indian nationals keeping in line with an the countries in the Schengen area.The recorded biometric data will be stored for a period of 59 months, obviating the need for applicants to come in person again for renewing their visa. The issuance period of visa will remain same (for India, maximum is 48 hours).

About Biometric Data:
It includes samples, models, fingerprints, similarity scores & all verification o identification data excluding the individual’s name & demographics.