Current Affairs for December 10, 2014 1. Alisher Usmanov, richest man of Russia, is to return auctioned Nobel medal to its original recipient James Watson. - The medal, awarded in 1962 for the discovery of the structure of DNA, fetched $4.8m for the impoverished American scientist earlier this year. - The medal is the first Nobel Prize to be sold off by a living recipient. - The prize was shared by Watson, Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick, with each receiving a gold medal. 2. SBI launches two forward looking economic index - one monthly and other yearly. - Named SBI Composite Index - it will compete with the existing data point from British lender HSBC. - The index will show expansion or contraction in the economy by analyzing its huge loan portfolio. - It will project market trends two months in advance by evaluating stuffs like; consumer spending trend, mining activity, interest rates, inflation, exchange rates and SBI lending and performance of various thematic indices to name a few. - It will include data from both manufacturing and service sector. 3. To protect our fishermen from drifting into foreign waters, government to devise a tracking system namely Automatic Identification System (AIS) network. - Fishing vessels will be fitted with customized AIS transponders to regulate their movement. - It will ensure safety and security of our fishermen who otherwise have to be detained abroad for breaching international waters - mainly of Sri Lanka and Pakistan. 4. Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of India stands at 178 per 100,000 live births for the period 2010-12. - This translates into an some 47,100 deaths per year for India. - The data comes from the latest report of the Registrar General of India, Sample Registration System (RGI-SRS). 5. Centre holds State Food Secretaries Conference to review implementation of National Food Security Act. - The conference feature 25 States/UTs, which have not yet started implementation of National Food Security Act. - It aims to review their status of preparedness and progress in end-to-end computerization of Targeted Public distribution System (TPDS). - There are 11 States/UTs to have already implemented the Act and are working towards the computerization of TPDS. 6. Centre plans to set up Industrial Machine Tool Park in the country under the Scheme on Enhancement of competitiveness in the Indian Capital Goods Sector. - The Scheme also looks to set up “Integrated Industrial Infrastructure Facility” with the objective of making the machine tool sector more competitive by providing an ecosystem for production.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 09:54:43 +0000