Current Affairs 25th August 2017

Current Affairs 25th August 2017 - Important Points

• Union Government names Rajiv Bansal as CMD of Air India on - 23rd August 2017
•  Nepal launches Climate-Smart Snow Leopard Plan on - 23rd August 2017
•  India-Nepal signed 8 agreements to boost the bilateral relations on - 24th August 2017
• Union Cabinet approves setting up of Commission to examine Sub-Categorization within OBCs on - 23rd August 2017 
• Radar system in Palau, island nation south-west of Guam to be installed by - US military
• England striker Wayne Rooney retires from international football on - 23rd August 2017
• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) - 23rd August 2017
• Amalgamation of Public Sector Banks through Alternative Mechanism approved by - Union Cabinet

Current Affairs 25th August 2017 - Details

Union Government names Rajiv Bansal as CMD of Air India on - 23rd August 2017

The Union Government named Rajiv Bansal, additional secretary and financial advisor in the Petroleum Ministry, as interim CMD of Air India Ltd on 23rd August 2017 .
More about Rajiv Bansal

• Rajiv is a 1988 batch IAS officer and also he did an earlier stint in the aviation ministry as a Director.
• He has also served in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, where he looked after digital payments, Aadhaar,IT Act and internet governance.
• During his career of 30 years, he also served as Secretary of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), and Joint Secretary in the Department of Heavy Industries.
• A civil engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, he also holds a diploma in finance from ICFAI, Hyderabad and an executive masters in International Business from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi.

 Nepal launches Climate-Smart Snow Leopard Plan on - 23rd August 2017

Nepal launched its climate-smart snow leopard landscape management plan on 23rd August 2017.
This plan is aiming to safeguard the endangered species of its habitat and snow leopard.
The plan is the first climate-smart landscape management for snow leopard conservation in the world.

Important highlights

• This conservation plan was launched ahead of the Ecosystem Forum and International Snow Leopard Summit that addresses key emerging and current threats to the snow leopards, including climate change.
• Nepal's conservation plan also comes ahead of the Bishkek Declaration, and all 12 range states at the close of the summit will be signing that and must pave the way for more substantial action to secure 20 snow leopard landscapes by 2020.
•  The plan is to address even the toughest challenges, that includes to tackle the complex impacts of climate change.

Bishkek Declaration

• The Bishkek Declaration was an agreement signed by 12 countries that are home to snow leopards.
  These countries are Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Russia,Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
• The declaration was initiated in order to formulate a long-term Global Snow Leopard Conservation Program by the formation of a high-level steering committee to guide program implementation and review its progress regularly.
• The key goals of the program are to evaluate and map the current status of key snow leopard population and habitat to set indicators and baselines against which to assess future change.

 India-Nepal signed 8 agreements to boost the bilateral relations on - 24th August 2017

India and Nepal signed eight agreements in different areas of mutual benefit including demand reduction and prevention of illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and cooperation in the field of standardization and conformity assessment among others on 24th August 2017.
Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba visit to India signed the agreement in New Delhi.
Nepal PM Deuba is on a five-day long state visit to in India (23rd August to 27th August 2017). The signed agreements will be helping the two nations to boost the bilateral relations.

Prime Minister of Nepal said that through Foreign Direct Investment, Nepal is more than happy in participating to scale up benefit from the regional value chain.  The Nepalese Premier said his goal is to work for the future youth. In June 2017,This is Deuba's first visit abroad after assuming the office of Prime Minister of Nepal. A high-level delegation is accompanying the Prime Minister of Nepal.

Union Cabinet approves setting up of Commission to examine Sub-Categorization within OBCs on - 23rd August 2017 

The Union Cabinet approved the setting up of a Commission under Article 340 of the Constitution to examine the issue of sub-categorization of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) on 23rd August 2017.

The Commission will be called as the 'Commission to examine the sub-categorization of Other Backward Classes'. It will be needed to submit its report within 3 months from the date of appointment of the Chairperson of the Commission.

Terms of References of the Commission

• The inequitable distribution of reservation benefits extent among different communities including OBCs broad category will be examined by it.
• It will be working out the mechanism, criteria, norms and parameters in a scientific approach for sub-categorization within OBCs.
• The different sub-castes, castes and communities in the Central List of OBCs and classify them into their respective sub-categories will be identified by it.

Radar system in Palau, island nation south-west of Guam to be installed by - US military

The United States has announced Plans to install radar systems in Palau which is an independent nation in south-west of Guam, the US territory that North Korea has threatened to target with its inter-continental Ballistic Missiles.
The United States Defence Department along with the Palau Government has released a joint statement, in which they stated that they were working to finalise the location of the radar towers on this island nation.
"The radar systems will be providing Palau improved maritime law enforcement capability while also giving the US with greater air domain awareness for the safety of aviation and security," the statement read.
Hence, while the systems are important for the well-being of the Palau's air and maritime domains, they will also be enhancing the ability of the United States to maintain its defence of the island Republic.
Besides this, the radar system would also be helping the island chain to monitor its massive 500 thousand square km maritime sanctuary, which is almost the size of Spain approximately.

England striker Wayne Rooney retires from international football on - 23rd August 2017

Former England captain Wayne Rooney announced his retirement from international football, ending a 14-year career on 23rd August 2017. Rooney also leaves as England's most-capped outfield player with 119 appearances with this.
More about Wayne Rooney

• Born on 24th October 1985, Wayne Rooney is an English professional footballer who plays for Premier League club Everton.
• Much of his career as a forward was played by him and he also used in various midfield roles.
• He is the record goalscorer for the England national team and for Manchester United.
• He is the only English player to win the Premier League, League Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and FIFA Club World Cup along with Michael Carrick.
• He had joined the Everton youth team at the age of 9 only, and made his professional debut for the club in 2002 at the age of 16.
• He made his senior international debut for England in February 2003 at the age of 17, becoming the youngest player to represent England (a record since broken by Theo Walcott) and also he is England's youngest ever goalscorer.

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) - 23rd August 2017

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the renaming of Central Sector Scheme SAMPADA as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) for the period of 2016-20on 23rd August 2017.  In May 2017, SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters) was approved by the CCEA in May 2017.

Important Highlights

• With an allocation of Rs 6000 crore, this PMKSY was approved.
• The objective of PMKSY is to supplement agriculture, modernize processing and to decrease Agricultural Waste.
• The scheme is expected to leverage investment of Rs 31400 crore and handling of 334 lakh MT agricultural produce valuing Rs 104125 crore.
• It is likely to benefit 20 lakh farmers and generate 530500 direct or indirect employment in the nation by the year 2019-20.
• Modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet is expected to be created with the implementation of the PMKSY.
• It will be boosting up the food processing sector and will be helping in providing better prices to farmers.
• It will be helping in reducing wastage of agricultural produce, availability of safe, convenient processed foods and increasing the processing level at affordable price to consumers.

Amalgamation of Public Sector Banks through Alternative Mechanism approved by - Union Cabinet

The Union Cabinet approved amalgamation of Public Sector Banks through an Alternative Mechanism (AM) with an  aim to facilitate consolidation among the Nationalised Banks to create strong and competitive banks on 23rd August 2017.

Framework of the Consolidation of Public Sector Banks

• The decision to make competitive and strong banks will be completely based on commercial considerations.
• The proposal of Consolidation must get started from the Boards of Banks.
• The proposals received from the banks for in-principle approval to formulate schemes of amalgamation should be placed before the AM (Alternative Mechanism).
• After in-principle approval, the banks need to take steps in agreement with law and SEBI’s requirements.
• The Union Government will be notifying final scheme in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).