Gist of current affairs from August 2013 Megazines.

Gist of current affairs from August 2013 Megazines. 

• S.K.Roy new Chairman of LIC  to replace Shri T.S.Vijayan , who will be new IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and development Authority) Chairman in place of  J. Harinarayan.
• Hasan Rouhani , new president of Iran .
• Mallikarjun Kharge became Union minister of Railways. Prior to this he was Minister of Labour and Employment. Besides him 4 cabinet level and 4 state level minister also inducted . Sisram Ola (Labour and Emp), Oscar Fernandes (Road transport and highways), Girija vyas (Housing and Urban poverty) Dr. S.K.Rao (Textiles)
• New CAG – ShashiKant Sharma , Comptroller and auditor general of India, succeeded Vinod Rai.
• Indian Bank Association , re elected Shri K.R.Kamath as chairman for 2013-14.

·                    Indian Banks' Association (IBA), formed on 26 September, 1946 as a representative body of management of banks operating in India ,based in Mumbai.[1] With an initial membership representing 22 banks in India in 1946, IBA currently represents 173 banking companies operating in India. IBA was formed for development, coordination and strengthening of Indian banking, and to assist the member banks in various ways including implementation of new systems and adoption of standards among the members.

• Pakistan new prime minister – Nawaz Sharif
• Palestine new PM – Rami Hamadallah.
• Man Booker international prize for won by American writer Lydia Davis.
• Singer Hariharan awarded Lata Mangeshkar samman in indore . Award instituted by MP Govt.
• G-8 summit in Geneva (17-18 June) supported peaceful settlement of Syria conflict.
• Bashar –al- asad  is president of Syria , Capital- Damascus, Currency- Syrian pound.
• Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest.
• World population prospects report released by UN predicts India to be most populous nation by 2028.
• India offers $150 million loan to Myanmar for Special Economic Zone development.
• Myanmar  - President U. Thein Sein, capital Nay Pay Taw , currency Kyat.

·                    India's Look East policy represents its efforts to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations with the nations of Southeast Asia in order to bolster its standing as a regional power and a counterweight to the strategic influence of the People's Republic of China. Initiated in 1991, marked a strategic shift in India’s perspective of the world. It was developed and enacted during the government of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and rigorously pursued by the successive administrations of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.[1][2][3][4][5]

• President of Afganistan Hamid karzai visits India. Gets honorary doctorate from lovely professional university , Phagwara , Punjab. India is constructing Salma dam  and new parliament bulding in Afghanistan.
• Afghanistan capital Kabul, Currency – Afgani
• India targets 80% literacy by 2017. Present literacy rate is 74%. Govt. is planning to implement it  through its  Saakshar Bharat programme (Operational in 372 districts covering nearly 1.5 lakh gram panchayat in 25 states) and panchayati raj institutions.
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hindi University set up in Bhopal..
• FDI in Telecom increased from 74 to 100%. Out of which 49% will be under Automatic route.
• Three Private banks Axis bank, HDFC bank and ICICI bank were penalized for violation of KYC norms and antimoney laundering  guidelines.
• Restriction on Cooperative banks, scheduled banks and NBFCs to grant loan against Gold coins.
• RBI relaxed time line for starting banking business  from one year to 18 months after getting license. New licensees will have to setup Non operative financial holding co. NOFHC and open its branches within 18 months.
• 160 years old Telegram services offered by BSNL discontinued permanently on 15 June 2013.
• Limit of Foreign investment in Govt. securities enhanced from $25 billion to 30 billion to attract more foreign exchange
• NSDA – National Skill Development Agency has been set up to meet the growing demand of skilled work force in both public and private sector. 12^th plan envisages 82 lakh skilled workforce to be create by 2017 and National policy on skill development aims at producing 500 million workforce by 2022. Existing three agencies like Prime minister’s council on skill development, NSD Coordination board and office of advisor to PM on skill development.
• Extension of RBSY- Rashtriya swasthya bima yojana.  Coverage extended to Rickshaw pullers, rag pickers, mine workers ,rickshaw drivers, sanitation workers , Street vendors,beedi workers, domestic workers , building and other construction workers, MGNREGA workers , who have completed  15days of work in the previous year. Scheme provides for health insurance cover for every BPL family of Rs. 30000/- per year. Center & states to contribute 75 and 25% respectively. Cashless facility is also available. Beneficiary has to contribute only 30/- per year, rest is given govt. Scheme started in 1 april 2008.
• China developed fastest computer. A survey of top 500 computers revealed that China’s Supercomputer Tianhe-2 is the fastest super computer of the world. .
• ICC Championship trophy. India defeated England in the finals of ODI Cricket tournament organized by International Cricket Council. Last India the trophy was jointly won by India and Srilanka.
• French Open tennis tournament . Rafael Nadal (spain)(First to win French title 8 times) beats David ferrer of Spain . Women’s single final won by serena Williams (America) against Mario sharapova (Russia).
• IPL-2013  year 6th, Mumbai Indian topped it for the first time defeating Chennai Super kings. So far Chennai held it twice while Rajasthan royals, deccan chargers and Kolkata knight riders won it once each.
• Sudirman cup  ,  Thirteenth World Badminton title  - 2013  won by China defeating South korea.
• England to host 2019 Cricket world cup tournament.
• Asian athletic championship held in Pune.
• Indian women Basketball team won gold in FIBA ASIA 3x3 basketball tournament 2013 in Doha, defeating Mongolia team.
• Amitav Ghosh ‘s latest novel in the race of Warwick prize “ River of Smoke”
• CTT Commodity transaction tax came into effect from 1^st July 2013.
• India signed USD 255 Million loan agreement with World bank for AIDS control programme.
• Confederation cup associated with Football.
• Financial sector legislative reforms commission FSLRC , Chairman – Shri B.N.Srikrishna recommended to reduce the number of regulators in financial services like commodity, stock market, pension and insurance. Suggested a Unified Financial Authority for all non-banking financial services.
• SBI to open 1200 branches in this fiscal year.
• Roshni  scheme for Naxal affected areas aims to skilling and placement of 50000 youth from 24 Naxal affected areas across 9 states.
• Union cabinet approved  Malayalam as the country’s 5Classical language  after Tamil, Sanskrit. Kannad and telugu.
• World bank urged to stop surveying and publishing of  Doing business index. The latest index ranked Singapore on top and gave china and India a rank of 91 and 132 respectively  . It is supposed to assess the legislative and regulatory environment’s impact on doing business in a specific country.
• European inventor award 2013 to India born Ajay Bhatt led team working at Intel USA for inventing USB Universal Serial Bus technology in computer.
• K. Srikanth , Badminton player , first Indian to win Thailand open .