Current Affairs 27th March 2015

Current Affairs 27th March 2015 - Important Points

• Name the platform launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for redressal of grievances - PRAGATI platform

• Who has won the Gold award at 6th Flame Awards 2015 - Usha International Limited

• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved - National Super Computing Mission

• Name the author of the book Faces and Places released by Vice president - Prof. Deepak Nayyar

• Where did the India’s first Polar Remotely Operated Vehicle operationalised - North Antarctica

• Who has won the Rashtriya Kavi Pradeep Samman for the year 2012-13 - Gopaldas Neeraj

• Who is appointed as chairman of the Empowered Committee of State FM’S on GST - KM Mani

• Who is appointed as MEA spokesman - Vikas Swarup

• Where did the Land customs station inaugurated - Zokhawthar in Mizoram along the Indo-Myanmar border

• Who has launched the Electronic Coal Projects Monitoring Portal (e-CPMP) - Union Ministry of Coal

• With whom did India signed 300 million US dollar loan agreement to improve connectivity in NE Region - ADB

• RBI signed Currency Swap Agreement with - Central Bank of Sri Lanka

Current Affairs 27th March 2015 - Details

Name the platform launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for redressal of grievances - PRAGATI platform

Among the important National Current Affairs, On 25th March 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI) platform. It is a multi-modal and multi-purpose platform aimed at addressing grievances of common man. Te aim of PRAGATI is simultaneously monitoring and reviewing Union Government programmes and projects as well as projects flagged by State Governments.

Features of PRAGATI

• It is a three-tier system (PMO, Union Government Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries of the States).
• PM will hold a monthly programme where he will interact with the Government of India Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries through Video-conferencing enabled by data and geo-informatics visuals.
• Issues to be flagged before the PM will be picked up from the available database regarding on-going Programmes, Public Grievances and pending Projects
• The system will ride on, strengthen and re-engineer the data bases of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the CPGRAMS for grievances and Project Monitoring Group (PMG). PRAGATI provides an interface and platform for all these three aspects.
• It will also take into deliberation various correspondences to PM’s office by the common people or from high dignitaries of States and/or developers of public projects.
• Identification of these issues can be viewed by the Union Government Secretaries and Chief Secretaries after entering into the application.
• Union Government Chief Secretaries and Secretaries will be able to see the issues pertaining to their Department /State.
• Union Government Chief Secretaries and Secretaries have to put their comments and updates about the flagged issues within three days.
• One day will be obtainable to the PMO team to review the data entered by the Union Government Secretaries and Chief Secretaries.
• The design is like that when PM reviews the issue he should have on his screen the issue as well as the latest updates and visuals regarding the same.

PRAGATI is a durable system that will help in for bringing e-transparency and e-accountability with real-time presence and exchange among the key stakeholders.

Who has won the Gold award at 6th Flame Awards 2015 - Usha International Limited

Among the important International Current Affairs, On 25th March 2015, Usha International Limited won the Gold award in the Last Mile Distribution Initiative of the year category at the 6th Annual Flame Awards 2015. The Rural Marketing Association of India hosted the awards. It was awarded in recognition of its rural marketing initiative to extend their footprint into small towns and villages.

In April 2013, the company set up its rural business as Project Sampark. This is an addendum of the company's distribution network into towns with population of less than one lakh and all of India's villages. Through Project Sampark, company has reached out to over 400000 households.

With 69% of India's 1.2 billion population based out of rural areas, Usha is focusing at establishing its footprint to over 6.4 Lakh villages and 8000 towns.

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved - National Super Computing Mission

On 25th March 2015, Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the National Super Computing Mission. The aim of the mission is bringing the High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities within the reach of the scientific community by augmenting indigenous supercomputing infrastructure.

The mission will be jointly executed by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) through the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore respectively.

The mission has following components

A vast supercomputing grid comprising of more than 70 High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities will be established in national academic and Research and Development (R&D) Institutions. The grid will be connected with the computing infrastructure set up under the National Knowledge Network (NKN).

More advanced HPC facilities will be developed using indigenous resources to make the intended supercomputing grid operational.

Name the author of the book Faces and Places released by Vice president - Prof. Deepak Nayyar

Among the important National Current Affairs, On 25th March 2015, The Vice President of India M Hamid Ansari released a book titled Faces and Places written by Prof. Deepak Nayyar, former Vice Chancellor of Delhi University. The book brings together a selection of the author’s photographs that have been taken over the past four decades. Its title express the essential idea of its dual theme. The centre is on people in their daily lives and on places that are of interest to visitors.

About Deepak Nayyar

Deepak Nayyar is a Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has taught at the the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C), University of Oxford, the University of Sussex and the New School for Social Research. From 2000-2005, he was the Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi.

Where did the India’s first Polar Remotely Operated Vehicle operationalised - North Antarctica

Among the important International Current Affairs, On 25th March 2015, India’s first Polar Remotely Operated Vehicle (PROVe) was successfully operationalised for research in North Antarctica. PROVe has been aborignally built by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Union Minister for Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan made the symbolic launch of the PROVe from the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) headquarters. The outcome of PROVe’s findings will contribute vastly to mankind’s understanding of climate besides enhancing the capability to predict the Monsoon.

Functions of PROVe

• Monsoon forecast and reading of pattern will become easier
• It will measure parameters like salinity in the Arctic, temperature and ocean currents.
• It is capable of exploring the sea bed under normal temperature and is capable of exploring up to 200 meters in inhospitable and tough regions like the ice clad Antarctica.

PROVe was successfully deployed in Priyadarshini Lake located on the Schirmacher Oasis of Antarctica by ESSO-NIOT. The Lake is a major source of water for Maitri, India’s secondary base in the Antarctica.

Who has won the Rashtriya Kavi Pradeep Samman for the year 2012-13 - Gopaldas Neeraj

Among the important National Current Affairs, On 24th March 2015, Renowned Hindi poet Gopaldas Neeraj won the Rashtriya Kavi Pradeep Samman for the year 2012-13. Department of Culture of Madhya Pradesh (MP) government presented the award. 90-year-old poet Neeraj won the award for his immense contribution in the field of literature.

He received a cash prize of two lakh rupees, a shawl and a citation by Madhya Pradesh Culture Minister Surendra Patwa at Shaheed Bhawan.

About Rashtriya Kavi Pradeep Samman

The Rashtriya Kavi Pradeep award has been initiated by the Madhya Pradesh government in the reminiscence of Kavi Pradeep, the noted poet and songwriter.

Who is appointed as chairman of the Empowered Committee of State FM’S on GST - KM Mani

Among the important appointments, On 24th March 2015, Kerala Finance Minister KM Mani was appointed as the Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on Goods and Services Tax (GST) by the Union Finance Ministry. The post was vacant since the former Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Finance Minister Abdul Rahim quit the position after the defeat of National Conference in the J&K Assembly elections held in December 2014.

Mani has been a member of the Kerala Legislature consecutively for the last 50 years and holds the record of presenting the largest number of state budgets. On 13th March 2015, he presented his 13th budget in the Kerala Assembly.

About Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers

On 17th July 2000, Union Government originally set up the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers. In 2004, it was inscribed under Societies Registration Act, 1860.

The representatives of the Empowered Committee are all the Ministers in charge of Finance/Taxation of all State Governments and Union Territories with legislatures, Additional Secretary (Revenue), Government of India and Member Secretary, Empowered Committee.

Who is appointed as MEA spokesman - Vikas Swarup

Among the important appointments, On 25th March 2015, Diplomat Vikas Swarup was appointed as an official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Swarup is a 1986 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer is also the author of bestseller novel Q&A, the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire was based on that novel. Swarup succeeds incumbent spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin and will take the charge of the office on 18 April 2015.

At the time of appointment, Swarup was heading the UN Political division of the ministry. Prior, he has served in several countries like South Africa, US, UK, Japan and Turkey. He has also fulfilled as a director of the sensitive PAI (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran) division.

Where did the Land customs station inaugurated - Zokhawthar in Mizoram along the Indo-Myanmar border

On 26th March 2015, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated a land customs station at the Indo-Myanmar border trade centre at Zokhawthar in Champhai district of Mizoram. The Zokhawthar Land Customs Station is equipped with a plant quarantine building, toll-gate and weigh bridge and was since 2012 authorised to facilitate trade of 62 different commodities.

Beside this, Sitharaman also promised the village leaders of Zokhawthar that a branch of State Bank of India and a post office would soon be established in the border trade centre village.

Who has launched the Electronic Coal Projects Monitoring Portal (e-CPMP) - Union Ministry of Coal

Among the important National Current Affairs, On 26th March 2015, The Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal launched the e-CPMP (Electronic Coal Projects Monitoring Portal) for tracking projects that entail an investment related to coal. The portal has been evolved by National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Characteristic Features of e-CPMP

• The objective of the portal is to enhance efficiency and transparency in the Ministry’s functioning
• It will improve communication between B2G (Business to Government), G2G (Government to Government) and G2B (Government to Business) by automating work processes, removing human interaction and timely disposal of important issues.
• Government ministries, agencies, departments and private entrepreneurs are eligible to submit issues related to stalled projects through the portal.
• It will proactively recognize potential and existing bottlenecks in the execution of projects and communicates administrative measures to overcome them.
• The portal also provides info for various Graphical Analysis and Reporting functionalities related to coal projects.
• The portal also acts as a platform to discuss general issues related to the ministry apart from issues related to stalled projects.

With whom did India signed 300 million US dollar loan agreement to improve connectivity in NE Region - ADB

On 26th March 2015, The Union Ministry of Finance and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a loan agreement for 300 million US dollars to improve road connectivity along the North Bengal-North Eastern (NB-NE) Region. The agreement was signed in New Delhi. The funds will be utilized to improve road connectivity and efficiency of the international trade corridors by expanding roads in NB-NE region of the country.

Tarun Bajaj, Joint Secretary (Multilateral Institutions) in the Department of Economic Affairs of Ministry of Finance and Teresa Kho, ADB’S country Director in India, signed the Agreement on behalf of the Government of India and ADB respectively.

Details of the Agreement

• The loan is the first part under 500 million US dollar South Asian Sub-Regional Economic Cooperation Road Connectivity Investment Program (SRCIP). Under this multi-tranche program, approx 500 km of roads will be constructed in the NB-NE region.
• The funds will be employed to construct two national highways totaling about 150 km in West Bengal and State roads totaling about 180 km in Manipur, which will be extended till the Myanmar Border.
• The loan amount makes-up nearly 71% of the total project cost of about 425 million US dollars with the central and state governments providing counterpart finance of about 125 million US dollars.
• The loan has a 25-year paying back term, including a five-year grace period with an annual interest rate determined in accordance with ADB's LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate)-based lending facility.
• The project is awaited to be complete by 31st December 2021.

RBI signed Currency Swap Agreement with - Central Bank of Sri Lanka

Among the important National Current Affairs, On 25th March 2015, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka signed a 400 million US dollar currency swap agreement. The agreement is valid for a period of 3 years from the date of signing.

According to the agreement, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka can make withdrawals of US dollar or Euro in multiple tranches up to a maximum of 400 million US dollar or its equivalent.

The Currency Swap Agreement with Sri Lanka was inked in backdrop of the announcement of May 2012 by the RBI Governor during the SAARCFINANCE Governor’s meeting, in Nepal. In the meeting, RBI had offered swap facilities aggregating 2 billion US dollar, both in Indian Rupee and foreign currency to neighbouring countries of the SAARC region.

The swap arrangement is wilful to provide a backstop line of funding for the SAARC member countries to meet any balance of payments and liquidity crises till longer term arrangements are made or if there is need for short-term liquidity due to market turbulence.