FEBRUARY 2016 CURRENT AFFAIRS (PART-8)

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to launch the country’s first solar mission called Aditya-L1. As part of the mission, Aditya-L1 satellite will be placed in an orbit about 15 lakh kilometres from the earth in a halo orbit around the L1 Lagranian point. It will be launched by using the PSLV XL. Its primary objective will be to study the solar corona and the chromospheres in different wavebands, dynamic nature of the sun’s outer most layers, and collect data about Coronal Mass Ejections (CME). Lagrangian points are the locations in space where the combined gravitational pull of two large masses roughly balance each other. There are 5 such points in Sun-Earth system and they are denoted as L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5. In this location, small mass remains at constant distances relative to the large masses. Halo orbit is a periodic three-dimensional orbit near the Lagrangian points L1, L2 or L3.
• Union Government has formally launched website for maiden Maritime India Summit 2016 scheduled to be held in April 2016. The website will facilitate investors and participants to access detailed information about the summit, including registrations. The maiden Maritime India Summit is scheduled to be held in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It will be organised by Union Ministry of Shipping. South Korea is the partner country for the summit and will be represented by a high level ministerial and business delegation.
• The fourth edition of the India-Myanmar Coordinated Patrol (IMCOR) was successfully undertaken. It was conducted by navies of the two countries along the strategically significant International Maritime Boundary Line in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal. Navies of India and Myanmar are conducting bilateral IMCOR along the Maritime boundary since 2013 as part of the ongoing India-Myanmar defence relations. With this Myanmar became only the third country after Indonesia and Thailand with which India has signed a formal agreement for maritime coordinated patrols.
• Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Government have set up Special Purpose Vehicles for the implementation of Smart City Plans. SPVs have been set up for five cities – Jabalpur, Indore and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and Jaipur and Udaipur in Rajasthan. These cities are among the first batch of 20 winners of Smart City Challenge Competition held by the Union Ministry of Urban Development. The Ministry will release 200 crore rupees for each of the 20 selected cities only after SPVs are set up. SPVs must be registered under the Companies Act, 2013 to ensure timely, cost-effective and efficient execution of smart city projects with operational freedom. They will ensure that the qualities of the outcomes of these smart city projects are benchmarked against global standards. SPVs shall have 50:50 equity that will held by the states and respective urban local bodies. Private equity is also allowed but the management control will rest with the Governments only. SPVs will be headed by a CEO and shall approve, sanction and execute the projects besides mobilizing resources from various sources.
• Bihar became the sixth state to join Union Government’s UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) Scheme for financial restructuring of debt of power distribution companies. Bihar is the 6th state after Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat to become part of the scheme.
• Chhattisgarh Government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ministry of Railway to form a joint venture company for the expansion of railway tracks in the state. With this Chhattisgarh became 5th state to join hands with the Indian Railways for speedy execution of rail projects through JV route.
• Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Dr. Harsh Vardhan has released Seismic Microzonation Reports for Delhi and Kolkata.
• The Reserve Bank of India has extended currency swap arrangement to South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations till mid-November 2017. Under the arrangement, RBI will be offering swap arrangement up to an overall amount of US 2 billion dollars both in foreign currency and Indian rupee.
• India has lost solar case against United States at the World Trade Organisation for breaching of international trade rules. In this regard, WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body ruled that India’s domestic content requirement for National Solar Mission discriminated against imported solar technology. The Dispute Settlement Body ruled that India domestic content requirement lacked domestic manufacturing capacity in solar cells and modules and there was risk of a disruption in imports.
• The Union Government has unveiled a National Capital Goods Policy 2016 to give an impetus to the capital goods sector and the Make in India initiative. This is for the first time that Union Government has framed such national policy for the capital goods sector. Aim of this policy is to Increase exports of capital goods from the current 27% to 40 % of production, Increase the share of domestic capital goods production and to enhance Indian made capital goods export through a ‘Heavy Industry Export & Market Development Assistance Scheme (HIEMDA)’.