******************Current Affairs last 4 Days*************** 22 May 2014 Global 1. *Thailand’s Army seized power in a bloodless coup and it suspended the Constitution and declared night curfew across the country after month’s long anti-government protests*. The Army also ordered all television and radio stations to suspend their usual programmes and replace with the army’s statements. Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha addressed in a national television saying the coup was necessary to restore stability and order after six months of political deadlock and turmoil. 2. *Business activity in the euro zone maintained its growth momentum in May a**s the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) compiled by Markit dipped to 53.9 compared to 54.0 in April. Any reading higher than 50 indicates growth.* At the same time, the HSBC compiled China Manufacturing PMI increased to 49.7 in May compared to 48.1 in April. Any reading lower than 50 indicates contraction in the manufacturing sector. 22 May 2014 India 1. *Former IB chief Rajiv Mathur took over as the new Chief Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission today*. He was administered the oath of office by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan. His name was recommended by a three-member selection panel headed by outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He succeeds Sushma Singh, who demitted office yesterday. He will have a tenure till August 23, when he attains 65 years of age. According to rules, CIC is appointed either for a maximum of five-year term or till 65 years of age, whichever is earlier. 2. *The Reserve Bank of India directed banks to make all new ATMs installed from July 1, 2014 as “talking ATMs” with Braille keypads.* Also banks should lay down a roadmap for converting all existing ATMs as talking ATMs with Braille keypads. This will also be reviewed from time to time by the Customer Service Committee of the Board. Apart from that, The RBI has also directed banks to provide magnifying glasses in all bank branches for the use of persons with low vision. The branches should display at a prominent place notice about the availability of magnifying glasses and other facilities available for persons with disabilities. 3. *India’s first all women bank, **Bharatiya Mahila Bank, has been included in the second schedule to the RBI Act. RBI issued a notification issued in Mumbai yesterday indicating the inclusion of the BMB in the second schedule. *** With the inclusion of BMB, total number of scheduled commercial banks in India now stands at 90. Post inclusion in the second schedule or commercial bank category, it will become eligible for loans from RBI on bank rate and also acquires membership of clearing houses. 4. *Foreign direct investment into India grew by 8% year-on-year to USD 24.3 billion in 2013-14, compared to USD 22.4 billion witnessed in previous financial year 2012-13.* Foreign investment inflows more than doubled to USD 3.53 billion in March this year from USD 1.52 in the same month last year. The highest FDI came in services (USD 2.22 billion), followed by automobiles (USD 1.51 billion), telecommunications ($1.3 billion), pharmaceuticals USD 1.27 billion) and construction development (USD 1.22 billion) in 2013-14. Singapore led the FDI inflows into India with USD 5.98 billion, followed by Mauritius (USD 4.85 billion), the UK (USD 3.21 billion) and the Netherlands (USD 2.27 billion). May 21st, 2014 India 1. *Gujarat Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel was elected leader of the BJP Legislature Party Leader today*. She will be the next Chief Minister of Gujarat and will succeed PM-designate Narendra Modi. Before that, she was the minister of Revenue and Urban Development in the Modi government. She will be the first woman chief minister of Gujarat. *Narendra Modi resigned today as the Chief Minister of Gujarat as he was elected as the new Prime Minister of India yesterday.* Modi will take oath as the prime minister on 26 May. He was the longest serving Chief Minister of Gujarat who has been at the helm for 14 years. 2. *Naveen Patnaik was sworn in as Chief Minister for fourth consecutive term today after BJD’s landslide victory in the Odisha Assembly elections held along with Lok sabha election.* Patnaik and 21 ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor S C Jamir at the Raj Bhavan. 3. *Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested and sent to Tihar Jail today by a Delhi court after he refused to furnish bail bond in a criminal defamation complaint filed against him by BJP leader and former President of BJP Nitin Gadkari*. He will be in Jail till Friday. Gadkari had alleged that he was defamed by Kejriwal who had included his name in AAP’s list of India’s most corrupt. Delhi Court ordered to take him into custody after he refused to furnish a personal bail bond of 10,000 rupees and a surety of same amount. 4*. Narendra Kumar Verma has been elected as the new Managing Director of ONGC Videsh Ltd, India’s flagship overseas oil and gas assets acquisition firm*. He is currently Director for Exploration in OVL’s parent company, ONGC. The post fell vacant after Dinesh K Sarraf was elevated as Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC. OVL has interests in 33 oil and gas assets in 17 countries and contributes to 12% and 7% of India’s oil and natural gas production, respectively. In terms of reserves and production, OVL is the second—largest petroleum company of India, next only to parent ONGC. 5. *India**’**s largest online retailer, Flipkart, has acquired fashion e-retailer Myntra for approximately USD 300 million*. This is widely seen as consolidation phase of India’s e-commerce market after aggressive push by global e-commerce giant Amazon. However, it is not yet clear whether Flipkart will acquire only the Myntra brand or its overall operations. Competition in India’s e-commerce industry has intensified recently following entry of Amazon last year. This acquisition will help Flipkart to increase its presence in online market of apparel and fashion accessories. 6. *Low-cost carrier IndiGo retained the top position in the domestic passenger aviation market in April after securing 31.6% market share.* The airline also carried 11% more passengers in April at 16.8 lakh compared to 15.1 lakh in the same month last year. Indigo is followed by Jet Airways with 21.8% market share (including JetLite), Air India with 18.3% market share and Spice Jet with 17.9% market share. 7. *Two-time champions Churchill Brothers were thrown out of the I-League along with three other teams for failing to fulfill the AIFF’s club licensing criteria.**The All India Football Federation’s Club Licensing Committee took the decision after its meeting today.* Two Kolkata clubs — United SC and Mohammedan Sporting — and Rangdajied United of Shillong were the other three teams which failed to clear the licensing criteria. All the four clubs will be out of the I-League for at least a year. Under the AIFF’s Club Licensing Regulations, the clubs are expected to meet several legal, administrative, sporting, infrastructure and financial criteria. May 21st, 2014 Global 1. *Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak today sentenced to three years in prison by a criminal court for misusing millions of dollars of public funds. The verdict came three years after he was toppled following a popular uprising.* Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades, is also facing trial for abuse of power and conspiring in the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising. 2. *Russia and **China have signed gas deal worth of USD 400 billion today. The gas deal was signed in Shanghai during the current visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia.* Russia has huge energy reserves and China was looking for alternative energy source to reduce its dependence on Coal due to heavy pollution. This is a significant step for Russian economy which is now facing sanctions imposed by USA and European Union following Ukraine Crisis. May 20th, 2014 India 1. *Narendra Modi was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP parliamentary party and Prime Minister of the newly elected NDA alliance today. He was handed the appointment letter by the President Pranab Mukherjee after a meeting of the BJP parliamentary party today*. The President also requested him to advise the names of members of the Council of Ministers. He will be sworn in as India’s 14th Prime Minister at 6 pm on May 26. The BJP’s parliamentary party met at 12 noon in the Central Hall of Parliament where senior leader LK Advani proposed Modi’s name as leader of the party. His candidature was unanimously upheld by the BJP and endorsed by all the constituents of the NDA by loud thumping of desks and cheers by the newly-elected MPs. 2. *All members of the Planning Commission submitted their resignations to the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday so that the Planning Commission can be reconstituted under newly elected NDA government*. Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia along with other full time members of the Commission B K Chaturvedi, Saumitra Chaudhuri, Syeda Hameed, Narendra Jadhav, Abhijit Sen, Mihir Shah, K Kasturirangan and Arun Maira have submitted their resignation. The Commission is headed by the Prime Minister. Dr. Ahluwalia and the rest of the members will continue as acting members till the Commission is reconstituted. 3. *India’s gold demand declined by 26% to 190.3 tonnes during the January to March quarter of 2014 compared to 257.5 tonnes in the same period of 2013, as per the report compiled by the World Gold Council.* In value terms, it translates into Rs 48,853 crore versus Rs 73,184 crore, a drop of 33%. The expectations for demand during 2014 stand at 900-1,000 tonnes, the report also said. This steep drop in Gold demand due to impact of higher import duties and supply curbs imposed on the gold market by the Central government earlier in an order to reduce India’s overall current account deficit. 4. *Indian batsman Virat Kohli has been rated second behind British Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton in the list of most marketable athletes by the UK magazine, ‘SportsPro’*. The list was based on value for money, age, home market, charisma, willingness to be marketed and crossover appeal. Virat was the only Indian sportsperson to be featured in the June edition of the London-based magazine. Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen is the only cricketer other than Kohli to feature in the top-50 list at 35^th rank. The list also includes Christiano Ronaldo (4) Usain Bolt (6), Neymar (7^th ), Lionel Messi (11), Novak Djokovic (15), Andy Murray (21), Rory McIlroy (24), Sebastian Vettel (27) and Victoria Azarenka (31). May 20th, 2014 Global 1. *The Thai military has imposed martial law to preserve law and order across the country amid a political crisis.*In response, the acting Prime Minister urged the army to act under the Constitution and with no violence. As a part of this, Soldiers have taken over TV and Radio Stations and blocked off roads in the capital, Bangkok. 2. *Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has pleaded guilty to the charges that it helped its American clients evade taxes and agreed to pay a penalty of USD 2.6 billion to avoid prosecution.* As per US Attorney, Credit Suisse conspired to help US citizens hide assets in offshore accounts in order to evade paying taxes. This is the largest bank to plead guilty in 20 years. The bank will pay a total of USD 1.8 billion in the form of a fine of over USD 1.13 billion and nearly USD 670 million in restitution to the IRS. May 19th, 2014 India 1. *Congress leader Nabam Tuki was sworn-in as the eighth Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh for the second consecutive term*. Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Nirbhay Sharma administered the oath yesterday. 2. *Janata Dal (U) leader and former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar chose senior minister Jitan Ram Manjhi today to succeed him as Chief Minister of Bihar.* Manjhi would stake claim to form the government. Mr. Manjhi, a dalit leader, was SC & ST minister in the Nitish Kumar government. Earlier, the Janata Dal (U) legislators of Bihar have asked Nitish Kumar to choose the new chief minister. Earlier, Nitish Kumar stepped down as state Chief Minister following announcement of Lok Sabha election results this weekend. 3. *Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister C Rangarajan has resigned following massive defeat of **the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the general election held recently*. Dr Rangarajan met Dr Manmohan Singh this morning and submitted his resignation letter. The PMEAC also has Saumitra Chaudhuri, V.S. Vyas, Pulin B. Nayak and Dilip M. Nachane as members. 4. *Australia has appointed prominent investment adviser Ashok Jacob as the Chair of Australia-India Council. His appointment would be effective from this year till 2019. * AIC was established in 1992 to promote people-to-people and institutional links between the two countries with a focus on education, science and technology, sport, public policy, heritage and arts sectors. Jacob is Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Ellerston Capital and also a director of Crown Ltd, Consolidated Press Holdings, Visy Australia, Thorney Opportunities Ltd, MRF Ltd (Chennai) and Malayala Manorama Newspaper Group (Kottayam). 5. *Payment services company MasterCard announced today that it would acquire Pune-based electronic payment software firm ElectraCard Services (ECS for an undisclosed amount*. This acquisition will help MasterCard to expand its product offerings. MasterCard entered into an agreement with Opus Software Solutions to acquire its subsidiary, ElectraCard Services. 6. *Veteran nuclear scientist and Padma Bhushan recipient, N Srinivasan passed away on Sunday due to cardiac arrest. He was 84*. Srinivasan joined the Department of Atomic Energy in 1953 and was the design engineer for the plutonium plant at Trombay. He established the indigenous technology for reprocessing spent fuels from thermal reactors. He was awarded with Padma Bhushan in 2000. 7. *Indian snooker and billiards player and Eight-time world champion Pankaj Advani won the billiards event at the CCI Classic billiards & snooker on 14^th May after defeating two-time world runner-up Dhruv Sitwala 1425-447 in the final.* Pankaj Advani is an 8-time World Champion.He is the only Asian to have ever won both the Billiards and Snooker World Championships. 8. *Indian recurve archers bagged two medals, a silver and a bronze, in the second World Cup held at Medellin, Columbia today*. While India’s recurve ‘B’ team comprising Atanu Das, Thupuvoyi and Sanjay Boro lost to Korea in the shoot-off to return with a silver medal, the mixed team of Atanu Das and Bombayla Devi Laishram pocketed a bronze by beating a Mexican combination.
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 07:12:25 +0000