DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 18 DEC 2015
(Daily News India)
1. UN SECURITY COUNCIL ADOPTED RESOLUTION TO CUT-OFF SUPPLY OF FUNDS TO ISIS GROUP
i. The UN Security Council has adopted resolution to increase sanctions against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq group and other terrorist groups.
ii. The resolution was adopted at the 1st meeting of Finance Ministers of the UNSC.
iii. The meeting was headed by Jack Lew of the United States.
iv. The resolution is adopted to ensure that government have adopted laws that make the financing of ISIS a serious criminal offence.
2. UNION GOVERNMENT GIVES IN PRINCIPLE APPROVAL TO GOOGLE’S LOON PROJECT
i. Union Government has given in principle approval to work on Loon project of internet search engine giant Google for providing Internet connectivity by using large balloons.
ii. The project will be started with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited to expand Internet connectivity in the country.
iii. Google’s Loon project is Google’s research and development project which aims at providing low-cost Internet availabilty to rural and remote areas.
3. SC TAKES ‘EXTRAORDINARY’ STEP OF APPOINTING UTTAR PRADESH LOKAYUKTA
i. Supreme court by Using its extraordinary powers granted under Article 142 of the Constitution has appointed Uttar Pradesh lokayukta.
ii. The Supreme Court for the first time in its history appointed a Lokayukta after the failure of the constitutional authorities of the State to act with its orders.
iii. The Court has appointed former high court judge Justice Virendra Singh as Uttar Pradesh’s Lokayukta after expressing its annoyance at the U.P. government’s failure to meet its deadline.
4. CLAUDE AND NORMA ALVARES HONOURED WITH 2015 SANCTUARY LIFETIME SERVICE AWARD
i. The Claude and Norma Alvares were honoured with the 2015 Lifetime Service Award by Sanctuary Asia magazine.
ii. Ashok Kumar was named as the Sanctuary Legend for fighting against wildlife crimes in India.
iii. Sanctuary Asia is India's first and one of its leading environmental news magazines.
5. RBI RELEASED FINAL GUIDELINES OF MARGINAL COST OF FUNDS METHODOLOGY TO CALCULATE INTEREST RATES
i. The Reserve Bank of India released the final guidelines on computing interest rates on advances based on the Marginal Cost of Funds Methodology.
ii. The guidelines will come into effect from 1 April 2016.
iii. The new methodology is aimed to bring uniformity among Bank Rates of banks so that they will be more sensitive to any changes in policy rates of the RBI like Cash Reserve Ratio, Statutory Liquidity Ratio etc.
iv. This new methodology will help in improving the transmission of policy rates into the lending rates of banks.
6. WTO APPROVED AFGHANISTAN’S MEMBERSHIP TO JOIN AS 163RD MEMBER
i. World Trade Organisation approved Afghanistan’s WTO membership at the WTO’s Tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
ii. Afghanistan will become the 163rd member of WTO.
Director General of WTO: Roberto Azevedo.
Head quarter of WTO: Geneva, Switzerland.
