Chief EditorB. Singh (Ex. IES)CMD, MADE EASY Group

EditorAniruddh Pratap Singh

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect policy or position of CurrEnt AffAIrS Magazine or MADE EASY Publications. they should be understood as the personal opinions of the author/ authors. the MADE EASY assumes no responsibility for views and opinions expressed nor does it vouch for any claims made in the advertisements published in the Magazine. While painstaking effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of the informations published in the Magazine, neither Publisher, Editor or any of its employee does not accept any claim for compensation, if any data is wrong, abbreviated, cancelled, omitted or inserted incorrect.

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ISBN: 978-93-83643-68-4

Issue : Annual Edition, 2015

Issue: Annual Edition, 2015

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Current Aff

airs

Civil Services Examination | State Services Exams | Engg. Services Examination | Public Sector Exams

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AffairsCurrent A Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E F O R C O M P E T I T I V E E X A M I N A T I O N S

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9 789383 643684

ISBN 978-93-83643-68-4 2015 ICC World Cup

NITI AAYOG REPLACES PLANNING COMMISSION

AAP SWEEPS DELHI ELECTIONS

UNION BUDGET2015-16

14th FINANCECOMMISSIONREPORT

Chris Gayle hits rst-ever World Cup double hundred

9 789383 643684

ISBN 978-93-83643-68-4

Issue: Annual Edition, 2015M

ADE EASY

OBAMAS INDIA VISIT

ADVT

Publications

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect policy or position of CurrEnt AffAIrS Magazine or MADE EASY Publications. they should be understood as the personal opinions of the author/ authors.

03 Message to Readers

05 Union Budget 2015-16

07 Chris Gayle makes World Cup history

08 2015 Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections

AAP Sweeps Delhi Elections

08

12 NITI Aayog Replaces Planning Commission

18 Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2015

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

18

20 14th Finance Commission Report 22 National Judicial

Appointments Commission

23 Namami Gange Programme

Namami Gange

23

Contents25 Interlinking of Rivers28 International Yoga Day29 G-20 Summit 201432 Kisan Vikas Patra Relaunched

33 25th ASEAN Summit

ASEAN Summit 2014

33

35 APEC Summit, 2014

22nd APEC Summit

35

36 India State of Forest Report 2013

38 Lok Sabha Election 2014

42 National Affairs

Make in India

49

69 International Affairs

Obamas India Visit

69

nnn

85 Awards and Honours

Jnanpith Award 2014

85

100 Persons in News

108 Environment and Wildlife

120 Science & Technology

128 Defence in News

AGNI-V Launched

128

136 Economy in News

145 Current Sports

162 Ready Reckoner

166 Current Affairs Practice Questions

Issue: Annual Edition, 2015

MADE EASY

Current Aff

airs

Civil Services Examination | State Services Exams | Engg. Services Examination | Public Sector Exams

150

AffairsCurrent A Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E F O R C O M P E T I T I V E E X A M I N A T I O N S

Pri

ce:

15

0

9 789383 643684

ISBN 978-93-83643-68-4 2015 ICC World Cup

NITI AAYOG REPLACES PLANNING COMMISSION

AAP SWEEPS DELHI ELECTIONS

UNION BUDGET2015-16

14th FINANCECOMMISSIONREPORT

Chris Gayle hits rst-ever World Cup double hundred

9 789383 643684

ISBN 978-93-83643-68-4

Issue: Annual Edition, 2015M

ADE EASY

OBAMAS INDIA VISIT

ADVT

Dear Students,

This annual edition of Current Affairs is prepared to address the needs of Civil

Services, Engineering Services, State Services, SSC exams and other competitive

examinations. This edition contains the current issues national as well as international

affairs of last 12 months which are of importance from examination point of view. Over

the last few years, it has been observed that UPSC examination is more tilted towards

current affairs questions, hence current affairs should be given priority. Though there

are several newspapers and monthly magazines which can be referred for study

of Current Affairs topics but none of these are focused and oriented to address the

need of UPSC Engineering Services Examination (ESE).

The annual issues of Current Affairs MADE EASY is very focused and contains detailed description of all

important topics required for such competitive examinations.

In case of engineers, it is specifically observed that most of the engineering aspirants preparing for Engineering

Services Examination do not get sufficient time to prepare Current Affairs because they hardly get time to

prepare for GS due to vast syllabus of technical subjects and importance of other exams like GATE & PSUs.

Coming few months will see most of you burning midnight oil to get winning score meriting a jump to the next

stage of the competition. For all aspirants preparing for competitive exams it is time to give finishing touch to

your preparation. In last few weeks of your preparation this annual issue will prove to be an important tool to

cover all important areas with precision in minimum possible time.

All aspirants are suggested to give last minute revision of important issues, concepts and formulae, as the

case may be.

B. Singh (Ex. IES)

CMD, MADE EASY GROUP

Message TO ReaDeRs

B. Singh (Ex. IES)CMD, MADE EASY Group

85 Awards and Honours

Jnanpith Award 2014

85

100 Persons in News

108 Environment and Wildlife

120 Science & Technology

128 Defence in News

AGNI-V Launched

128

136 Economy in News

145 Current Sports

162 Ready Reckoner

166 Current Affairs Practice Questions

In todays fast changing world, everything has become so competitive that sometimes even better is not enough, it requires only the best. Be it life or be it examination, it is imperative to have the best of the preparations and hence timely and timeless preparation is an essence of the success in the competitive examinations. Competitive examinations are sometimes less about strength or intelligence and more about understanding the examination requirements and incessant effort to unlock our potential for accomplishing the goal.

It gives me an immense pleasure and satisfaction in introducing the current issue of Current Affairs Made Easy. The very basic purpose of launching this Magazine is to be able to fulfill the requirement of various competitive examinations in an efficient and effective way and helping the aspirants achieving the desired success in those examinations. We have tried to provide an ingenious, resourceful, authentic and relevant informations in a most lucid, comprehensible, communicative and self- explanatory manner. With the comprehensive yet precise coverage, this issue of the Current Affairs Made Easy will be accomplishing the requirements of the various Competitive Examinations like Civil Services Examination, State Civil Services Examinations, Indian Engineering Services Examination, Indian forest Services Examination, and the various Public Sector undertakings Examination. Despite Competitive examinations being the main focus, the Magazine will generate awareness about the nation and the World among the General readers too.

In this issue of the Magazine we have covered the wide ranging issues of national and International importance that occurred in the last twelve months or so with additional inputs in order to provide the basic understanding of the key issues. Background material has been covered for such issues which require greater attention keeping examination requirement in mind. All important Awards and Honours, Books and Authors, Persons and Places, Meeting and Summits, Institutions and Organisations have been covered in such a manner so that examination requirement is successfully met. Current issues related to Defence, Science and technology, Environment and wildlife, Economy and Sports has also been covered extensively. Issues of greater importance like nItI Aayog, namami Gange Programme, Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, Indian State of the forest report 2013, IrnSS, LVM-3, ASEAn Summit, Ordinance Promulgation, national Judicial Appointment Commission, unfCCC conference in Lima and Lok Sabha Election 2014 and some other topics have been given both the objective and the Analytical coverage.

I sincerely hope that this Magazine will help you access the hidden treasure trove of success and will act a pathfinder through the journey towards your dream.

Wishing you all the very best and a bright future ahead.

Aniruddh Pratap Singh Editor

A letter from the Editor

Current AffairsAnnual Edition, 2015

5Union Budget 2015-16

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 28 February 2015 presented Union Budget 2015-16 in the Parliament. It was the first full year Budget of the NDA government under leadership of PM Narendra Modi.

Shunning populism, Finance Minister proposed a 5% reduction in corporate tax over the next four years, replacing of wealth tax with an additional 2% surcharge on super-rich and raised excise duty and service tax rates that will make a host of articles and services costly.

Finance Minister proposed no changes in personal income tax rates for 2015-16 but extended benefits to middle-class by increasing the limit of deduction on health insurance premium from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000.The service tax plus education cess has been raised from 12.36% to 14%that will increase bills, air travel and eating out expenses. A new 2% Swachh Bharat cess on taxable services is also being proposed from a future date.

State of Economy CPIinflationprojectedat5%bytheendoftheyear,

consequently, easing of monetary policy. Monetary Policy Framework Agreement with RBI, to keep inflationbelow6%.GDPgrowthin2015-16,projectedto be between 8 to 8.5%.

Government firmon journey toachieve fiscal targetof 3% of GDP. Accordingly, journey for fiscal deficit target of 3% will be achieved in 3 years rather than 2 years. The fiscal deficit targets are 3.9%, 3.5% and 3.0% in FY 2015-16, 2016-17 & 2017-18 respectively.

Amrut Mahotsav : The year 2022, 75th year of Independence

Vision for Team India led by PM: Housing for all - 2 crore houses in Urban areas and

4 crore houses in Rural areas.

Basic facilityof24x7power,cleandrinkingwater,atoilet and road connectivity.

Electrification of the remaining 20,000 villagesincluding off-grid Solar Power- by 2020.

Tostrengthenruraleconomy-increaseirrigatedarea,improve the efficiency of existing irrigation systems, and ensure reasonable price for farm produce.

To make India, the manufacturing hub of the Worldthrough Skill India and the Make in India Programmes.

Gamechangingreformsontheanvil: Goods and Service Tax (GST) Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile (JAM) - for direct

benefit transfer.

Agriculture ` 5,300 crore to support micro-irrigation, watershed

development and the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. States urged to chip in.

` 25,000 crore in 2015-16 to the corpus of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) set up in NABARD; ` 15,000 crore for Long Term Rural Credit Fund; 45,000 crore for Short Term Co-operative Rural Credit Refinance Fund; and ` 15,000 crore for Short Term RRB (Regional Rural Banks) Refinance Fund.

Funding the Unfunded Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA)

Bank, with a corpus of ` 20,000 crores, and credit guarantee corpus of ` 3,000 crores to be created.

MUDRABankwill be responsible for refinancing allMicro-finance Institutions which are in the business of lending to such small entities of business through a Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana.

ComprehensiveBankruptcyCodeofglobalstandardsto be brought in fiscal 2015-16 towards ease of doing business.

From Jan Dhan to Jan Suraksha Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojna to cover accidental

death risk of ` 2 Lakh for a premium of ` 12 per year.

Atal Pension Yojana to provide a defined pension, depending on the contribution and the period of

Current Affairs | MADE EASY6

Current Affairs Annual Edition, 2015

contribution. Govt. to contribute 50% of the beneficiaries premium limited to ` 1,000 each year, for five years, in the new accounts opened before 31st Dec. 2015.

Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana to cover both natural and accidental death risk of ` 2 lakh at premium of ` 330 per year for the age group of 18-50.

Infrastructure National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), to be

establishedwithanannualflowof` 20,000 crores to it.

Atal Innovation Mission to be established in NITI Aayog to provide Innovation Promotion Platform involving academicians, and drawing upon national and international experiences to foster a culture of innovation , research and development. A sum of `150 crore will be earmarked.

Self-Employment and Talent Utilization (SETU) to be established as Techno-financial, incubation and facilitation programme to support all aspects of start-up business. ` 1000 crore to be set aside as initial amount in NITI Aayog.

Monetising Gold Gold monetisation scheme to allow the depositors of

gold to earn interest in their metal accounts and the jewellers to obtain loans in their metal account to be introduced. Sovereign Gold Bond, as an alternative to purchasing metal gold scheme to be developed.

Foreign investments in Alternate Investment Fundsto be allowed. Distinction between different types of foreign investments, especially between foreign portfolio investments and foreign direct investments to be done away with. Replacement with composite caps.

Skill India Lessthan5%ofourpotentialworkforcegetsformal

skill training to be employable. A national skill mission to consolidate skill initiatives spread accross several ministries to be launched.

Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gramin Kaushal Yojana to enhance the employability of rural youth.

An IIT tobesetup inKarnatakaand Indian School of Mines,Dhanbadtobeupgradedintoafull-fledgedIIT.New All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) to be set up in J&K,Punjab,TamilNadu,HimachalPradeshand Assam. Another AIIMS like institutions to be set up in Bihar. A post graduate institute of HorticultureResearch & Education is to be set up in Amritsar.

Tax Proposals Nochangeinrateofpersonalincometax.Proposalto

reduce corporate tax from 30% to 25% over the next four years, starting from next financial year.

Black Money Bill foracomprehensivenew law todealwithblack

money parked abroad to be Introduced in the current session.

Keyfeaturesofnewlawonblackmoney: Evasion of tax in relation to foreign assets to have

a punishment of rigorous imprisonment upto 10 years, be non-compoundable, have a penalty rate of 300% and the offender will not be permitted to approach the Settlement Commission.

Non-filing of return/filing of return with inade-quate disclosures to have a punishment Of rig-orous imprisonment upto 7 years.

Concealment of income/evasion of income in re-lation to a foreign asset to be made a predicate offence under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill to curb domestic black money to be introduced in the current session of Parliament.

Make in India GeneralAntiAvoidanceRule(GAAR) to be deferred by

two years. Basic Custom duty on certain inputs, raw materials, inter mediates and components in 22 items, reduced to minimise the impact of duty inversion.

Wealth-tax replaced with additional surcharge of 2 per cent on super rich with a taxable income of over `1 crore annually.

Service-tax plus education cesses increased from12.36% to 14% to facilitate transition to GST.

EducationcessandtheSecondaryandHighereducationcess to be subsumed in Central Excise Duty.

Swachh Bharat 100%deductionforcontributions,otherthanbyway

of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contribution, toSwachhBharatKoshandCleanGangaFund.

Clean energy cess increased from ` 100 to ` 200 per metric tonne of coal, etc. to finance clean environment initiatives.

Current AffairsAnnual Edition, 2015

7Chris Gayle makes World Cup history

WestIndiesopenerChrisGaylehitthe first double century in World

Cup history in their Pool B victory over Zimbabwe at Canberra. The 35-year-old left-hander reached 200 off

138 balls, hitting Tendai Chatara for a boundaryinthe46thover.Hismarkeclipsedthe unbeaten 188 by South Africas Gary KirstenagainsttheUnitedArabEmiratesin1996. Gayle hit a total of 16 sixes in 147 balls before he was out for 215 off the last delivery of his sides innings. The Partnership of 372 with Marlon Samuels

was also a record partnership for any ODI wicket, surpassing the 331 shared by Indias Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar against NewZealandatHyderabadin1999.

History created in Canberra ChrisGaylescoredthefirstWorldCupdoublehundred.

Gayles 16 sixes equalled the ODI record held by RohitSharmaandABdeVilliers,andshatteredthepreviousWorldCup record of nine.

GayleandSamuelsputon372-thehighestODIpartnershiprecord for any wicket. Gayle became the only batsman to hit a century in Twenty20 Internationals, a double century in ODIs and a triple century in Tests.

India at World Cup 2015

India vs Pakistan: ViratKohlion15February2015becamethefirstIndiancricketertoscoreacenturyagainstPakistanintheICCWorldCup.Hescored107runoff126-ballsattheAdelaideOval,Australia.Indiascored300runsforsevenwicketsafterelectingtobatfirstanddefeatedPakistanby76runs.Withthiscentury,Kohlialsobecamethequickestbatsmantoscore22centuriesinODIs.Hehadtakenjust143inningstoreachthemark.Previousrecordofquickest22centurieswasheldbySachinin 206 innings.

India vs South Africa: Shikhar Dhawan hit a superb century as defending champions India maintained their unbeaten start to theWorldCupwitha130-runwinoverSouthAfrica.Indias307-7wasbuiltaroundDhawans137,whileAjinkyaRahanemade79off60ballsandViratKohli46.SouthAfricawerebowledoutfor177.ThedefeatwasSouthAfricasheaviestinWorldCup.

Pool A Pool B

new Zealand India

Australia West Indies

Bangladesh Ireland

Afghanistan South Africa

Sri Lanka Zimbabwe

England united Arab Emirates

Scotland Pakistan

Anil Kumble inducted into ICC cricket Hall of FameFormerIndiaCaptainandacespinnerAnilKumblehasbeeninductedintotheICCCricketHallofFame.Heisthe77thinducteeintotheICCCricketHallofFame.Hewasfelicitatedandinductedon22February2015duringtheICCCricketWorldCupmatchbetweenIndiaandSouthAfricainMelbourne.AnilKumbleisthe4thIndiancricketertobeinductedintotheICCCricketHallofFame.OthersareBishenSinghBedi,KapilDevandSunilGavaskarwhowereinductedintoHallofFamein2009.

Top five one-day innings

Score Player Opposition Year

264 rohit Sharma Sri Lanka 2014

219 Virender Sehwag West Indies 2011

215 Chris Gayle Zimbabwe 2015

209 rohit Sharma Australia 2013

200 Sachin tendulkar South Africa 2010

Current Affairs Annual Edition, 2015

82015 Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on 10 February 2015 declared the results of Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections 2015.AamAadmiParty(AAP)headedbyArvindKejriwalsecuredabsolutemajorityintheassemblybywinning67seatsin the house of 70 seats.

2015 Delhi Legislative Assembly elections results

Summary of results of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Election, 2015

Political Party flag Seats Contested

Won net Change in seats

% of Seats

Vote % Change in vote %

Aam Aadmi Party 70 67 39 95.7% 54.3% 24.81%

Bharatiya Janata Party 69 3 28 4.28% 32.2% 0.8%

Shiromani Akali Dal 1 0 1 0% 0.5% 0.5%

Indian national Congress 70 0 8 0% 9.7% 14.85%

Bahujan Samaj Party 70 0 - 0% 1.3% -

InLD 2 0 - 0% 0.6% -

Independents - 0 1 0% 0.5% -nOtA nA nA nA nA 0.4% nA

nOtA : 35924 Votes

total seats: 70 Voters turnout : 67.08%