Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Starred Articles

India and Nepal sign Power Trade Agreement (PTA)
India > Indo-Nepal > October 22
India and Nepal have signed a historic Power Trade Agreement (PTA) which will allow exchange of electricity and pave the way for cooperation in the hydropower sector. The two countries had agreed on the deal when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Nepal in August. There is a provision of establishing a joint working group in the PTA to be headed by joint secretaries of the two countries. The joint group will sit every six months and take up issues not only pertaining to the existing cooperation in power sector between the two countries but will also explore and identify new areas of cooperation.

RBI asks banks to partially freeze KYC non-compliant accounts
Bank Specific > KYC > October 22
The RBI has said that banks may partially freeze (allow all credits and disallow all debits) KYC non-compliant accounts after giving due notice of three months initially to the customers and followed by a reminder for further period of three months. If the accounts are still KYC non-compliant after six months of imposing initial partial freezing, banks may disallow all debits/credits from/to such accounts and make them inoperative. The bank may also close such accounts at will. The RBI notification also said banks need not seek fresh proofs of identity and address at the time of periodic updation, from those customers who are categorised as 'low risk', in case of no change in status with respect to their identities and addresses.

India re-elected to UNHRC with highest votes
World > UNHRC > October 22
India has been re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the period of 2015 to 2017 in the recently held UN General Assembly elections in New York after receiving the highest number of votes, 162 votes. India was competing in the Asia-Pacific group in which four seats were up for election. The other countries competing in the group were Indonesia, Bangladesh, Qatar, Thailand, Kuwait, Cambodia, Philippines and Bahrain, out of which India, Bangladesh, Qatar and Indonesia made it to the UNHRC. India's first term as the member of the 47-nation UNHRC is due to end on December 31st, this year.

Sania mirza and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black win WTA doubles title
Sports > Tennis > October 26
Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and Zimbabwe's Cara Black teamed up to win the doubles title at the WTA Finals in Bangalore beating Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai of China. Sania became the first Indian in almost four decades to win the season finale. The first and only previous Indian to win the title was Vijay Amritraj in 1977, when he won the men's event alongside American Dick Stockton.


Others

Malala Yousafzai receives US Liberty Medal
Awards > Liberty Medal > October 22
The youngest ever Noble Peace Prize winner, Pakistani teenager, Malala Yousafzai, has been conferred with the Liberty Medal. Malala has pledged to donate the $100,000 award money towards education in Pakistan and said that this will encourage her to continue her campaign for child rights.

Denis Mukwege, doctor from DR Congo, wins 2014 Sakharov prize
Awards >Sakharov Prize 2014 > October 22
Denis Mukwege, a doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo has won the Sakharov prize, Europe's top human rights prize, for helping thousands of gang rape victims in the country. He set up the Panzi hospital in eastern DR Congo in 1999 to treat women subjected to horrific sexual violence. Dr Mukwege will collect the 50,000 euros prize next month.

SBI launches mPassBook facility on its mobile application
Bank Specific > mPassBook > October 22
State Bank of India (SBI) has launched a facility called 'mPassBook' today on its 'State Bank Anywhere' mobile application, for its retail banking users. 'mPassBook' is an electronic application of a physical passbook for savings bank and current accounts. The facility is currently available on Android phones but would soon be available on iOS and Blackberry phones too.

Pankaj Advani wins World Billiards Championship Final
Sports > Billiards > October 24
Indian Billiards star Pankaj Advani clinched his eleventh world title by defeating former champion Peter Gilchrist in the 150 up points format World Billiards Championship final in Leeds, England. Advani now is the holder of three different world titles in 2014 - the IBSF World 6-Red Snooker title, the World Team Billiards title and now the World Billiards Championship (point format), a record untouched so far.

India-born Sundar Pichai to head Google’s products business
Corporate > Google > October 26
Sundar Pichai, the India-born chief of Google’s Android unit, has been selected to lead Google’s products business as part of management reorganization. Google CEO Larry Page is transferring leadership of core Google products such as search, maps, Google+, commerce, advertising and infrastructure. Also, six executives who previously reported to Page, including heads of research, social media and search, will now report to Pichai. Google has however left out YouTube out of the restructuring exercise. Pichai joined Google in 2004 and is currently senior vice-president of Android, Chrome and Apps.

Serena Williams beats Simona Halep to win her 5th title at the WTA Finals
Sports > Tennis > October 26
US tennis player Serena Williams beat Romanian Simona Halep to win her third-successive title at the WTA Finals - and her fifth overall. Williams won 11 of the last 12 games in the match to join Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf as the only players to have won five titles in the season-ending championships.

BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar sworn in as 10th Chief Minister of Haryana
Politics and Government > Haryana Chief Minister > October 26
Manohar Lal Khattar, from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was sworn in as the 10th Chief Minister of Harayana at a high-profile event attended by PM Narendra Modi and several senior BJP leaders. It is after 18 years that a non-Jat was sworn in as the Haryana chief minister. Before Khattar, the last non-Jat CM was
Bhajan Lal. He had been in power from 1991 to 1996.

Anirban Lahiri wins Venetian Macau Open
Sports > Golf > October 26
Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri lifted his second title of the year by winning the Venetian Macau Open. This waS Lahiri’s fifth career win on the Asian tour.

Infantry Day observed across India on 27th October
India > Infantry Day > October 27
The 68th Infantry Day was observed across India on October 27th to pay homage to war heroes. Indian Army’s first Infantry contingent on 27 October 1947 landed at Srinagar Airfield and fought a courageous battle to liberate the princely State of Jammu and Kashmir which was under attack by tribal raiders supported by the troops of the newly formed Pakistani Army. To commemorate this gallant action by the Infantry, every year 27th October is observed as Infantry Day.

Government cancels appointment of 8 state-run bank CMDs, 14 EDs
Bank Specific > Public Sector Banks > October 27
The government has cancelled the appointment of eight chairmen-cum-managing directors and 14 executive directors of state-run banks appointed by the previous UPA government. The government took the decision following a report by a committee set up to examine the selection process to the posts of CMDs/EDs of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) for 2014-15. Bank appointments came under the scanner after Syndicate Bank chairman and managing director (CMD) SK Jain was arrested by the CBI for allegedly accepting bribes of Rs 50 lakh to enhance the credit limit of some companies.

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