DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 11 SEP 2017

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 11 SEP 2017
(DAILY NEWS INDIA)
SHARED BY: WWW.DAILYGK.IN

1.   ASSAM ENACTS INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES (ASSAM AMENDMENT) BILL 2017
i. Assam passed the Industrial Disputes (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2017, regarding lay off of employees, in Guwahati. The law enables employers to lay off up to 300 employees without prior permission from the government.
ii. The employee count has been increased from 100 to 300. The law is said to increase the ease of doing business. As, employers are hesitant to recruit more number of employees because when the employee count increases more than 100, there would be problems during lay off.
iii. The Government has decided to increase the compensation of a labourer from the current 15 days salary to up to 60 days salary.

2.   WEST BENGAL LEADS IN NEW TAX REGISTRATION UNDER GST REGIME
i. According to the reports, the national average is 23%; Bengal leads the pack with as high as 77% in new tax registration under the GST regime in India. As per the reports, about 245,000 people in the state are tax payers while the number in the country stands at around 8 million.
ii. States such as Gujarat and Maharashtra are behind West Bengal in GST registration. The figures were disclosed by Mr Arvind Singh, the new principal commissioner of GST & CX, eastern region.
iii. The figures were disclosed at a session titled “Democratisation of Services” on the second of the two-day ICT East organized by CII.

3.   DEFENCE MINISTER NIRMALA SITHARAM FLAGS OFF INSV TARINI AT INS MANDOVI
i. Defence Minister flagged off Navy women team’s historic voyage from Goa for circumnavigation. The Indian Navy’s woman team has embarked on a circumnavigation of the globe, with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
ii. The Indian Navy calls it a “historic” day for the country. Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba were also present on the occasion.
iii. The minister flagged off the first such expedition by the Indian Navy, ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama’, at a ceremony at the INS Mandovi naval training base, Panaji Goa. The 6-member women crew will circumnavigate the globe on an India-built sail boat, INSV Tarini, which is being captained by Lt Commander Vartika Joshi.
iv. The circumnavigation is to be covered in about 165 days at sea. The first stop would be in Free-Mantle in Australia, New Zealand and then to Falklands before reaching their last stop in Cape Town in South Africa.

4.   ICICI LOMBARD, SBI LIFE INSURANCE GETS SEBI APPROVAL FOR IPO
i. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company and SBI Life Insurance gets SEBI approval for Initial Public Offering. SBI Life Insurance has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India for an IPO of up to Rs 8,400 cr ($1.3 billion), with launch targeted for the September 20-22 period.
ii. The IPO will involve 120 million secondary shares, or 12% of the insurer’s equity capital. State Bank of India, which currently owns 70.1% of the insurer, will sell 80 million shares and BNP Paribas Cardif, holder of a 26% stake, will sell 40 million.
iii. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company has got approval from capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India’s which could be the first by a general insurer in the country.
iv. ICICI Lombard is a joint venture between ICICI Bank and Canada-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. According to market sources, the IPO could be worth about Rs 6,000 cr.

5.   IRDAI ALLOWS ONE-TIME PASSWORD FOR OPENING ONLINE INSURANCE ACCOUNT
i. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority announced usage of OTP for opening e-Insurance Account as an alternative to electronic signature, in New Delhi.
ii. IRDAI said that in order to facilitate the opening of e-Insurance Account through online or electronic means, the authority has permitted validation by One Time Password.
iii. Now, e-signature of the e- insurance account holder on the application form for opening the account is considered as a valid authentication. Also IRDAI has permitted the e-KYC facility offered by Unique Identification Authority of India which provides unique Aadhaar numbers.

6.   MICROSOFT CEO SATYA NADELLA ANNOUNCES HIS FIRST BOOK ‘HIT REFRESH’
i. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has launched his 1st book named Hit Refresh. The book includes the inside story of the company’s continuing transformation, Nadella’s own personal journey, Vision for the coming wave of intelligent technologies.
ii. The book goes on sale globally on 26th September and is available for pre-order. Satya Nadella will donate all proceeds from Hit Refresh to Microsoft Philanthropies.
iii. The book also includes a set of questions for anybody searching for improvement for themselves as leaders, for their institutions and for society.

7.   INDIA WINS 2ND SABA U-16 CHAMPIONSHIP
i. India won the 2nd South Asian Basketball, SABA, Under – 16 Championship, in Kathmandu, Nepal.
ii. The championship was held at Dashrath Rangshala Stadium, in Kathmandu. India won all its 4 matches and obtained a total of 8 points.
iii. India was followed by Bangladesh in the 2nd position and Nepal in the 3rd. The championship followed a round robin league format.
iv. India has now qualified for the 2017 International Basketball Federation, FIBA, Under-16 Asian Championship to be played in Malaysia, in 2017.

8.   WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY 2017
i. World Suicide Prevention Day 2017 was observed throughout the world. This year’s theme was ‘Take a minute, change a life.’
ii. This is the 15th World Suicide Prevention Day. The day was first observed in 2003, as an initiative of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and the World Health Organization.
iii. The following activities are carried out on the World Suicide Prevention Day: Launch of new government initiatives to prevent suicide, Media programs that promote suicide prevention, Conferences, educational seminars and public lectures regarding suicide prevention.
iv. Memorial services or candlelight ceremonies to remember those who died by suicide, Organizing cultural or spiritual events, fairs and exhibitions, Launches of publications about suicide awareness and prevention and Training courses about suicide and depression awareness.

9.   HIMALAYA DAY BEING OBSERVED ACROSS UTTARAKHAND ON SEPTEMBER 9
i. Himalayan Day observed across the country on 9th September and the main programme held in Dehradun. Himalayan Day would be observed at 400 venues across the country to highlight its importance.
ii. The theme for this year was ‘Contribution of Himalayas and Our Responsibility’. The mission took out a rally in Dehradun to mark the day and CM Trivendra Singh Rawat was the chief guest at the workshop.

OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS BASED ON TODAY’S NEWS

Q1. WHICH STATE HAS PASSED THE INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES REGARDING LAY OFF OF EMPLOYEES?
a)  Hyderabad
b)  Assam
c)  Kerala
d)  Tamil Nadu
Q2. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING STATE IN INDIA LEADS IN NEW TAX REGISTRATION UNDER GST REGIME?
a)  Maharashtra
b)  Uttarakhand
c)  West Bengal
d)  New Delhi
Q3. WHO FLAGGED OFF WOMEN CREW ‘NAVIKA SAGAR PARIKRAMA’OF INDIAN NAVAL SAILING VESSEL TARINI AT THE INS MANDOVI NAVAL TRAINING NEAR PANAJI?
a)  Piyush Goyal
b)  Manohar Parikar
c)  Arun Jaitley
d)  Nirmala Sitharaman
Q4. WHICH TWO BIG INSURANCE COMPANIES HAVE GOT APPROVAL FROM SEBI?
a)  ICICI Lombard and SBI Life insurance
b)  IDFC
c)  HDFC Life Term plan
d)  IDBI and Yes Bank
Q5. WHO HAS LAUNCHED THE BOOK HIT REFRESH?
a)  Jeff Bezos
b)  Sachin Bansal
c)  Satya Nadella
d)  Mark Zukerberg

ANSWERS: 

1 - B    2 - C    3 - D    4 - A    5 - C