Important Current Affairs of 16th November 2015

Important Current Affairs of 16th November 2015

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unveiled the Statue of Basaveshwara in London. Basaveshwara was a 12th century Indian philosopher and Kannada poet. He spread social awareness through his poetry, popularly known as Vachanas.
  
• Exercise Livewire is an annual exercise conducted by Indian Air Force to work up the full spectrum of IAF capability and undertake planned operations in response to likely future threats and operational contingencies. Recent exercise was concluded on November 8.
  
• Recently, Union Government has extended by one year the tenure of a high level committee set up under former Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri to suggest steps to sort out taxation problem being faced by the trade and industry. The committee was formed in December 2014.
  
• C919, developed by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) is the first plane produced by a Chinese initiative to compete in the market for large passenger jetliners. China is one of the biggest aviation markets but relies on Boeing and Airbus aircraft. The C919 is one of several initiatives launched by the ruling Communist Party to transform China from the world’s low-cost factory into a creator of profitable technology.
  
• Recently, Russia’s athletics federation was provisionally suspended from international competition – including the Olympic Games – for its alleged involvement in widespread doping. The Council of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) took action after the publication of an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report that alleged “state- sponsored doping”.
  
• GSAT-15, India’s communication satellite, was launched successfully by the European Ariane 5 VA-227 launch Vehicle on November 11. The 3164 kg GSAT-15 carries communication transponders in Ku-band as well as a GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) payload operating in L1 and L5 bands. GSAT-15 will be positioned at 93.5 deg East longitude in the geostationary orbit along with the operational INSAT-3A and INSAT-4B satellites.
  
• To improve children’s education by enhancing interaction between schools and parents, CBSE, has developed in-house, a decision support system called ‘SARANSH’. The platform is presently available for classes 9th to 12th and provides a comprehensive overview of standard 10th performance since 2007 and standard 12th performance since 2009 till the current academic session. Presently, results of CBSE are available on this portal/app
  
• India won as many as 11 medals, including five gold, three silver and three bronze at the World Youth Chess Championships at Porto Carras in Greece. The World Youth Chess Championships is amongst the biggest event in the world with participation of players from across the globe.
  
• According to the cumulative data from April 2000 to June 2015, 
• Mauritius contributed 35% of total FDI flows in to India. Mauritius is followed by
•  Singapore (14%), 
• United Kingdom (9%) and 
• Japan (7%).
  
• Kaziranga National Park is located in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts of Assam and is circumscribed by the Brahmaputra River. It was designated with National Park status in 1968 and was declared UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 for its unique natural environment. Recently, India’s first exclusive hospital for elephants has been established at the Kaziranga National Park. The hospital was set up at Mark Shand Memorial Learning Centre in Kaziranga National Park. It was inaugurated by Sir Evelyn de Rothschild who is founding patron of the UK-based charity Elephant Family.
  
• The 10th G-20 Summit started at Antalya, Turkey on 15th November 2015. Terrorism, climate change and global cooperation to unearth black money high on agenda This summit will be held during 15-16 November 2015. Chairman : Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (President of Turkey).
  
• On 15th November 2015 (3rd Sunday of November) World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims was observed. This day was started by the British road crash victim charity, RoadPeace, in 1993 and was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005.
• Theme of 2015 : It’s time to Remember – Say NO to Road Crime.
  
• India and Bangladesh on 15th November 2015 signed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in New Delhi, to operationalize the “Agreement on Coastal Shipping” signed between the two countries in June, 2015.
  
• The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered money laundering case against Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh. The agency has filed the case under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
  
• The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has nominated Satish Shah and Bhawana Somaaya as members of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Society.
  
• Swacch Bharat cess of 0.5% comes into effect from on 15th November 2015. This cess will increase the service tax rate from 14% to 14.5% on all taxable services, including mobile telephone services, travel and PAN (Permanent Account Number) cards. The Government is expecting to collect around Rs 10,000 crore from Swachh Bharat cess for full year.  The tax generated through the cess will be used to fund Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet project, the Swachh Bharat Mission. The government announced the date for implementation on 6 November.