1) The Lok Sabha on 9 December 2014 passed the Payments and Settlement Systems (Amendment)Bill. What is the main objective of this bill? – To bring India’s banking payment system in sync with international practices.The Bill seeks to improve the payment and settlement systems by increasing transparency and stability of Indian financial market. Amendment to the Payment and Settlement
Systems Act, 2007 was proposed to update the regulations in line with globally accepted standards. The amendment seeks to protect funds collected from the customers by the payment system providers and to extend the Act to cover trade repository and legal entity identifier issuer. A Legal Entity Identifier is a unique ID associated with a single corporate entity. It was felt that numerous obsolete laws exist in the Indian financial system and they are needed to be rectified.
2) Which Indian bank has become the first in India to have developed its own economic index on lines of
HSBC India Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) and HSBC India Manufacturing PMI? – State
Bank of India (SBI).SBI’s economic index has been named ‘SBI Composite Index’ and will be released in January 2015. It will have both monthly and yearly indices. The short-term report, to be released in the first week of every month, will forecast the state of the economy two months down the line. The annual index will make year-on-year forward predictions. This index has gone through eight years of back-testing (2007-2014) and during this index accurately predicted economic direction 72% of the time. SBI Composite Index will take into account the credit demand and other indicators of economic activity like consumer spending, mining activity, interest rates, inflation, exchange rate and other thematic indices and service and manufacturing activities.
3) World’s longest train journey was completed on 9 December 2014 when a train covering record 13052 km long journey reached Spanish capital Madrid. This train had started its journey from which country? –
China.The train named ‘Yixinou’ had started its journey from Chinese city of Yiwu. The train comprised of 40 wagons, carrying 1,400 tons of cargo, consisting of stationary, craft products and products for the Christmas market and it will return to China filled with luxury Spanish produce such as cured ham, olive oil and wine. The marathon journey crossed China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France, before arriving in Spain. The results of this first historic journey which will then be evaluated with the aim of opening a regular two-way rail link between China and Spain, which could commence operations in early 2015. The 13,052 kilometers between Madrid and Yiwu is a greater distance than that between the North and South Pole, although the distance was not covered using the same crew, nor the same engine.
4) 3-day Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) kicked off on 10 December 2014 that features more
than 400 online retailers and companies offering deals and discounts to fast-growing online shopping fraternity in India. Who is organising GOSF? – Google
Note: GOSF is in its third edition and was initially launched in 2012 by Google to boost the adoption of online shopping in India. GOSF 2014 features numerous exclusive launches including Google’s Nexus 6 smartphone. Google India has partnered Aditya Birla Money My Universe as a preferred partner for this year’s event. Last year, GOSF saw tremendous response from consumers in India and the company claimed it attracted 2 million visitors. The company had also claimed that its GOSF 2013 partners (over 200 e-commerce websites) saw daily sales jumping 3 to 4 times.
5) Who was confirmed as the next US Ambassador to India by the US Senate on 9 December 2014 and
would thus become the first Indian-American to hold this post? – Richard Rahul Verma
Note: Richard Rahul Verma has served as assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs at the State Department in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011. He is currently a senior counsellor at Steptoe & Johnson law firm and the Albright Stonebridge Group, a business advisory company, led by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. He had earlier played an important role in the Congressional passage of Civil Nuclear Deal. The very fact that Verma was confirmed by a voice vote in a bitterly divided Senate with more than fifty ambassadorial nominations pending, signify the bi-partisan support to India-US relationship.
6) Which country was rated as the Most Dangerous Country in the World in the Country Threat Index (CTI) released on 9 December 2014 by IntelCenter, a Washington-based company working for intelligence agencies? – Iraq
Note: The index were prepared after examining the volume of terrorist and rebel alerts, messaging traffic, videos, photos, incidents and the number of killed and injured in a country over the past 30 days. The other countries in the top 10 are Nigeria (second), Somalia (third) followed by Pakistan (fourth), Yemen (fifth), Syria (sixth), Libya (seventh), Afghanistan (eighth), Egypt (ninth) and Kenya (tenth). There are a total of 45 countries with a CTI greater than zero.
7) Global Human Rights Day is observed today (10th December) across the world to raise awareness
about Human rights. The theme of 2014 Human Rights Day is“Human Rights 365” which was based on
the idea that every day is Human Rights Day and everyone is entitled to basic human rights day. The date was chosen to honour the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption and proclamation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on 10th December 1948. First Human Rights Day was observed in 1950.
8) India’s Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo on 10th December. Both of them shared the USD 1.1 million prize. Mr Satyarthi said in his acceptance speech “I represent the sounds of silence, the voices of innocence” after receiving the prestigious award. Renowned artistes from India and Pakistan – Sarod Maestro Amjad Ali Khan and singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan – performed in the ceremony.
10). US based think tank IntelCenter has released Country Threat Index (CTI) which ranks 45 countries in terms of terrorist and rebel threat to a country. The Country Threat Index (CTI) was prepared based on the data related to the volume of terrorist and rebel alerts, messaging traffic, videos, photos, incidents and the number of killed and injured in a country over the past 30 days. As per the ranking, there are total 45 countries with a CTI greater than zero. Iraq got the worst rank in the list followed by Nigeria, Somalia and Afghanistan while Pakistan got 8th rank in the list.
11) German Chancellor Angela Merkel was re- elected unopposed as chief of Conservative party yesterday. This post is the highest post in the largest economy of Europe and also termed as the Europe’s most powerful leader. Merkel said her policies as leader of Germany promoted security and stability and lived up to Germany’s responsibilities in the world.
12) Inflation in China, measured by Consumer Price Index, dropped to 1.4% in November compared to
1.6% in October. This is the lowest inflation in last 5 years, earlier inflation dropped to this level in November 2009. Producer prices also dropped to 2.7% compared to same period last year.
13) The Central Government has asked all the States to stop operations of all unregistered taxi services for now till next notifications. Home Minister Rajnath Singh said this after a female passenger was raped by a driver contracted to US online cab company Uber in New Delhi. New Delhi had already announced to ban all unregistered internet taxi firms after the incident. Other states are also expected to New Delhi to ban all unregistered taxi services.
14) Founder and Chairman of Wipro Azim Premji has been awarded with the Swiss Ambassador’s Award for his inspirational and socially responsible leadership in Mumbai. Switzerland ambassador Linus von Castelmur praised Azim Premji as an inspiration of the corporate world who has maintained values such as tolerance, honesty and modesty. The Award was constituted in 2010 and it recognizes individuals who have contributed to the promotion of Indo-Swiss relations or have stood out for their exceptional role in society and industry.
15) Indian Boxer Sarita Devi finally received her Asian Games bronze medal which she had refused at the victory ceremony during the 17th Asian Games in Incheon earlier this year. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Secretary General Rajeev Mehta presented the medal to her at the IOA Headquarters today. She was provisionally suspended by the World Boxing federation, Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA), as she refused to accept her medal following her controversial loss in the semifinal of
the Asian Games.
16) Atletico de Kolkata secured semifinal berth of the Indian Super League football tournament currently being held after finishing the league match draw with FC Goa 1-1. Atletico de Kolkata will play against FC Goa in the first semifinal match while Chennaiyin FC play against Kerala Blasters FC in the other semifinal match