Current Affairs - 4th March 2014

86th Oscar Awards 2014

Oscar awards, the most prestigious wards of the cinema industry all over the world were held in Los Angeles for the movies made in the year 2013 on 3 march 2014. The recipients of the award are as follows:

- Best movie (drama):- 12 Years a Slave
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Best director: - Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity. (Gravity also won awards for cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects, original score and film editing and thus became the maximum award gainer of the event.)

- Best Actor Male: - Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club

- Best Actor Female: - Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine

- Best film in foreign language: - The Great Beauty from Italy

- Best animated film: - Frozen

IRDA allows insurance companies to invest in equity ETFs

IRDA on Monday allowed insurance companies to invest in equity Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) with certain conditions. ETF is a security that tracks an index, a commodity or a basket of assets like an index fund, but trades like a stock on an exchange. ETFs were introduced in India in 2001. IRDA (Insurance Regulatory Development Authority) has allowed only passively managed schemes of the mutual funds which are registered with SEBI and governed by SEBI.

Best CSR awards 2014

UAE exchange bagged the award for “Best Use of CSR Practice” in the banking and finance sector. CSR awards are constituted by World CSR Congress and this is the 3rd edition of the title. The CSR efforts are focused on the needs of the society related to education, health, and environment and other needs of society.

Deadline for replacement of pre 2005 notes extended

The RBI has extended its time limit to replace the notes printed before 2005 from 31st March 2014 to 1st January 2015. The move has been taken keeping in view the convenience to the public and to avoid any chaos after 31st March. It is to be noted that RBI had earlier issued an notification that notes printed before 2005 will cease to operate in the market after 31st March 2014.

BIMSTEC summit 2014

PM Manmohan Singh represented India in the BIMSTEC summit which was held in Myanmar and he was accompanied with National Security Advisor Shivshanker Menon. BIMSTEC is a group of 7 nations- India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal and the summit is expected to discuss on issues of terrorism and steps to counter them. India has also finalized the BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.