CURRENT AFFAIRS – SEPTEMBER 8, 2017

  CURRENT AFFAIRS – SEPTEMBER 8, 2017

INTERNATIONAL 

India, US to carry out joint military exercise:

Armies of India and the US will carry out a two-week long mega military exercise “Yudh Abhyas” in Washington as part of the ongoing Indo-US defence cooperation. It is the 13th edition of the joint military exercise.

Additional information on Yudh Abhyas:

• The aim of the annual exercise “Yudh Abhyas” is to further strengthen ‘Jointmanship’.

Exercise Yudh Abhyas will provide an opportunity to the armed forces of both countries to train in an integrated manner at Battalion level.

Multiple scenarios will be rehearsed during the joint exercise with a view to understand each-other’s organisational structure and battle procedures which would result in a higher degree of jointmanship to further facilitate interoperability between the armed forces of both countries to meet any unforeseen contingency across the globe.

• 12th edition of Yudh Abhyas 2016 held in Chaubattia, India
• 11th edition of Yudh Abhyas 2015 held in Lewis McChord in United states

USA

• President of the United States: Donald Trump
• Currency: United States Dollar
• Capital: Washington, D.C

Ashok Leyland signs MoU with Russian, Indian firms for defence supply:

Ashok Leyland Defence Systems (ALDS), part of Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation with Rosoboronexport (ROE), Russia, and an Indian firm ELCOM Group, to provide tracked vehicle solutions to Indian armed forces.

Rosoboronexport (ROE), Russia, is the only state-run firm in Russia for export of an entire range of military products and technologies.

ELCOM Group is a player in strategic electronics, avionics and tactical communication globally.

Additional information on Ashok Leyland:

Ashok Leyland is an India automobile manufacturing company headquartered in Chennai, India. It is owned by the Hinduja Group.

Founded in 1948, it is the 2nd largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in India, 4th largest manufacturer of buses in the world and 12th largest manufacturer of trucks globally.

• Managing director: Vinod K Dasari

RUSSIA

• Russian President: Vladimir Putin.
• Currency: Russian ruble
• Capital: Moscow

PM caps Myanmar trip with visit to Bahadur Shah’s grave:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up his Myanmar trip, visiting to the ‘mazar’ of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and the 2,500-year-old Shwedagon pagoda.

Mr. Modi visited the pagoda, considered the pinnacle of Myanmar’s cultural heritage. He planted a Bodhi tree sapling in the complex.

Additional Information on Bahadur Shah Zafar:

• Mirza Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar was the last Mughal emperor.
• Bahadur Shah Zafar, is also a prolific Urdu poet and calligrapher, died at 87 in Rangoon, where he was exiled by the British after the 1857 revolt.

Additional Information on Myanmar’s cultural heritage – Shwedagon pagoda:

• The Shwedagon Pagoda officially named Shwedagon Zedi Daw and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda, is a gilded stupa located in Yangon, Myanmar.
• The 2,500-year-old pagoda, located west of the Royal Lake, enshrines strands of Buddha’s hair and other holy relics. It is covered with hundreds of gold plates. The top of the stupa is encrusted with 4,531 diamonds, the largest of which is a 72-carat diamond.

Myanmar

• Currency: Burmese kyat
• Capital: Naypyidaw
• President: Htin Kyaw
• State Counsellor(Prime Minister): Aung San Suu Kyi

SpaceX launches Air Force’s super-secret mini-shuttle:

SpaceX has launched the Air Force’s super-secret space shuttle.

An unmanned Falcon rocket blasted from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. It’s the fifth flight for one of these crewless mini shuttles, known as the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle.

This is the first time SpaceX has provided a lift for the experimental mini-shuttle.

SpaceX

• CEO: Elon Musk
• Headquarters: Hawthorne, California, United States

BANKING & BUSINESS

SBI Life Insurance gets SEBI approval for Rs 8,400 crore IPO:

SBI Life Insurance has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India for an IPO of up to Rs 8,400 crore ($1.3 billion), with launch targeted for the September 20-22 period.

Additional Information on IPO:

An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the first time that the stock of a private company is offered to the public. IPOs are often issued by smaller, younger companies seeking capital to expand, but they can also be done by large privately owned companies looking to become publicly traded. In an IPO, the issuer obtains the assistance of an underwriting firm, which helps determine what type of security to issue, the best offering price, the amount of shares to be issued and the time to bring it to market.

Additional Information on SBI Life Insurance:

SBI Life Insurance is a joint venture life insurance company between State Bank of India (SBI), the largest state-owned banking and financial services company in India, and BNP Paribas Cardiff. BNP Paribas is a French multinational bank and financial services company with global headquarters in Paris. SBI owns 70.1% of the total capital and BNP Paribas Cardiff 26% of the capital.

SBI Life Insurance

• CEO: Arijit Basu
• Headquarters: Mumbai

 SEBI imposes Rs 2,423 crore penalty on PACL, four directors for illegal mobilisation of funds:

Markets regulator SEBI imposed a penalty of Rs 2,423 crore on PACL and its four directors for illegal mobilisation of funds from the public.

Mr. Sukhdev Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Subrata Bhattacharya and certain other past directors had mobilised funds from general public via collective investment schemes, without obtaining registration from the regulator.

Earlier in 2015, SEBI had imposed a penalty of Rs 7,269.5 crore on PACL Ltd and its four directors for illegal and fraudulent mobilisation of funds from the public, saying the company deserves “maximum penalty” for such large-scale duping of the common man.

Additional information on SEBI:

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the regulator for the securities market in India. It was established in the year 1988 and given statutory powers on 30 January 1992 through the SEBI Act, 1992.
• It became an autonomous body by The Government of India on 12 April 1992 and given statutory powers in 1992 with SEBI Act 1992 being passed by the Indian Parliament.

SEBI

• Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
• Chairman: Ajay Tyagi

Paytm all set to sell insurance products:

Payment bank Paytm can now sell life insurance, health and general insurance products. The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has granted corporate agency license for One97 Communications, the parent of Paytm. The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba-backed Paytm, a leading player in the mobile payments and e-commerce platform claims a registered user base of over 250 million, has been granted license under the composite category.

Paytm, which also counts Japan’s Soft Bank as an investor, has obtained a license valid between August 30, 2017 and August 29, 2020. Amit Gupta has been named as the principal officer for the business.

Additional Information on Paytm:

• Paytm is an Indian electronic payment and e-commerce brand based out of Delhi NCR, India. Launched in August 2010, it is the consumer brand of parent One97 Communications. The name is an acronym for “Pay Through Mobile”.
• In 2013, the company launched Paytm Wallet, which became India’s largest mobile payment service platform.
• In 2015, Paytm became the first Indian company to receive funding from Chinese ecommerce company The Alibaba Group was the biggest stakeholder in Paytm parent company One97 Communications.
• In 2015 Paytm received a license from Reserve Bank of India to start one of India’s first payments banks, called “Paytm Payments Bank Limited“.
• Paytm Payments Bank launched operations on May 23, 2017, initially with invite only system. From August 31, 2017, the services of the bank were open to everyone through Paytm Android and iOS app.

Paytm

• CEO: Vijay Shekhar Sharma
• Headquarters: Noida

APPOINTMENTS

Viveck Goenka elected PTI Chairman:

Viveck Goenka, Chairman and Managing Director of the Express Group, and N. Ravi, former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, were unanimously elected Chairman and Vice Chairman of Press Trust of India, the country’s largest news agency.

Mr. Goenka (60) succeeds Riyad Mathew, who is Senior Assistant Editor and a member of the Manorama management. Mr. Ravi (69) succeeds Mr. Goenka as Vice Chairman.

Mr. Goenka, an engineer by qualification and a publisher by profession, is also a director of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS). He also served as Chairman of United News of India news agency, as a Council Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Additional Information on PTI:

• Press Trust of India (PTI) is the largest news agency in India. It is a non-profit cooperative.
• Headquarters: New Delhi

SPORTS

Sathish Sivalingam won gold in commonwealth & Oceania Championship held at Gold Coast, Australia:

Sathish Sivalingam won gold in the senior men’s 77kg category of the Commonwealth and Oceania Championships held at Gold Coast in Australia.

In Youth Boy’s category Ragala venkat raghul with an overall effort of 269kg clinched the gold. In junior men’s 77kg, Ajay Singh bagged the yellow metal.

Sathish Sivalingam and Ragala venkat raghul qualified for 2018 commonwealth games.

Two Indian women weightlifters also claimed gold medals. S Nirupama Devi (junior women’s 69kg) lifted a total weight of 178kg while Nikeeta Kale (youth girls 69kg) lifted a total of 163kg to finish on the top of the podium.