Current Affairs 05.04.2014

1. Marie-Lousie Coleiro Preca sworn-in as President of Malta

i. Marie-Lousie Coleiro Preca was sworn-in as the President of Malta. She was named as President after being suggested by the Prime Minister,Joseph Muscat and approved by Parliament.

ii. She replaced George Abela from Labour Party whose term completed on 4 April 2014.

iii. With her appointment, the total number of female heads of a country in the world now stands at  21.

 About Malta

i. Malta is a southern European country in the Mediterranean Sea with smallest capital Valletta in EU.

ii. Malta got its independence in 1964 from the United Kingdom. Malta is a republic with parliamentary system and public administration is closely modeled on the Westminster system.

iii. Malta's president who have no executive powers and acts as figureheads or nominal head, serve for five years and cannot be re-appointed.

iv. In 2014, Malta will celebrate it’s 40th anniversary of becoming a republic.

2. RBI decides to compute and release Real Effective Exchange Rate from this financial year

i. The RBI has decided to compute and release the Real Effective Exchange Rate on the basis of the Consumer Price Index from this financial year.

ii. The Bank said in a release that the step would give a higher degree of comparability to India's international competitiveness in relation to its trading partner countries.

iii. Since October last year, the RBI had started giving projections of inflation in terms of the broader CPI-Combined.

iv. The RBI had so far been providing the Real Effective Exchange Rate index using the Wholesale Price Index for India and CPI for partner countries.

3.    India’s forex reserves soar to $303.67 billion

i. India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves soared by $5.03 billion to $303.67 billion for the week ended March 28, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.

ii. The forex reserves have soared past $300 billion mark for the first time since December 2011.

iii. This is the fifth consecutive week of increase in the country’s forex reserves as overseas investors poured in money in local bonds and stock markets. The forex reserves had risen by $1.34 billion and $1.83 billion in the previous two weeks.

iv. According to the RBI’s weekly statistical supplement, foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves, rose by $5.01 billion to $276.40 billion.

v. India’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rose by $30 million to $1.83 billion.

vi. However, the value of special drawing rights (SDRs) fell by $3.6 million to $4.45 billion, while the value of gold reserves remained unchanged at $20.97 billion.

4.    SBI launches twitter handle

i. After launching accounts on Facebook and Youtube, the country’s largest lender SBI yesterday took one more step on the social media front by launching a twitter handle.

ii. Mid-sized private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank had last month launched twitter-linked current accounts.

iii. The Twitter handle for SBI is “https://twitter.com/TheOfficialSBI”.\

iv. “Targeting huge customer base as well as potential customers, there will be round-the-clock tweets on the banks’ products and services, as also continuous education of the customers,” the bank said in a statement. The bank expects this Twitter handle to connect better with the tech-savvy young generation.

5.    Former President of Guinea Kumba Yala died at 61

i. Former President of Guinea Kumba Yala died at the age of 61 due to cardiac arrest on 4 April 2014. Kumba was elected civilian President of Guinea in 2001 and ruled the country till 2003.

ii. He was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2003. He founded the Social Renewal Party (PRS) in 1992 and he was the president of the Party.

iii. Yala belonged to the Balanta ethnic group and was a professor of Philosophy. He did masters in Portuguese, Spanish, French and English.

About Guinea
Guinea or Republic of Guinea is a West African country. It is also known as French Guinea. It declared its independence from France in 1958.

Guinea is a republic with Presidential system but it was governed by autocratic rulers till 2010. The first free and fair presidential election was held in 2010.

6.    FIFA imposed transfer ban on Barcelona

i. International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) imposed a transfer ban at both national and international level on 2 April 2014 on Spanish club FC Barcelona. 

ii. The ban prohibited FC Barcelona from buying and/or selling players for the next two transfer windows (June 2014 and January 2015).

iii. This ban will last for one year. Apart from this ban, FIFA also imposed financial penalty on FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

iv. Real was accused of violating Article 19 of regulations of FIFA and has been given one year to regularize their regulatory framework and existing system concerning the international transfer of underage players.

v. According to Article 19, international transfers of players are only permitted if the player is over the age of 18. The Disciplinary Committee underlined that FIFA takes the protection of minors in football very seriously. The protection of minors is one of the key principles included in the agreement concluded between FIFA, UEFA and the European Commission in 2001.

7.    Iran and Japan signed a MoU to cooperate in environmental issues

i. Iran and Japan signed on 2 April 2014 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for bilateral cooperation on environmental issues in Tokyo.

ii. Vice-President and Head of Department of Environment of Iran Masoumeh Ebtekar and Head of International Cooperation Agency of Japan Nobuteru Ishihara signed the MoU.

iii. Under the MoU, the two countries agreed to broaden cooperation in reducing air pollution, dealing with climate change consequences and protecting ponds.

iv. And also both the countries exchanged views and discussed various issues pertaining to environment protection. Both the countries called for collective cooperation among world countries in fighting air pollution.

8.    MS Dhoni won United Kingdom’s 2014 Asian award

i. MS Dhoni, the captain of Indian cricket team on 4 April 2014 won the United Kingdom’s 2014 Asian Award for outstanding achievement in Sports. The award was announced at London’s at The Grosvenor House Hotel.

ii. At present Dhoni is in Bangladesh and will lead the Indian team into the finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2014 against Sri Lanka.

iii. Dhoni is widely regarded as one of the greatest finishers in limited over cricket tournament and in 2013 he emerged as the first captain to win all three ICC trophies. Under the Forbes list of highest paid athletes, Dhoni is ranked at the 16th position. 

9.    ICC Twenty20: India vs Lanka in final tomorrow

i. India take on Sri Lanka in the final of the ICC World Twenty20 tournament at Mirpur in Bangladesh tomorrow.

ii. Team India are seeking to become the first country to win two World T20 titles. They had earlier lifted the coveted Trophy in 2007

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