General - Current Affairs for November, 2015

Indian Railway Accounts Service of Indian Railways held the IRAS Day on November 28, 2015 at Maneckshaw Center, New Delhi. IRAS was formed in November 1920. To mark IRAS Day, a conference of financial advisors of Zonal Railways was held.

Benoit Peeters, 59, a French graphic novelist and critic, will take on the position of visiting professor at Lancaster University in north west England from summer 2016. He is known as an international authority on Tintin comics created by Herge.

Transport ministry has made the decision to advance launch of BS-VI fuel compliant 4 wheelers by two years from 2023 to 2021. The ministry had earlier moved the deadline by one year from the original deadline of 2024. The decision to pre-pone the rolling out has been taken to reduce vehicular pollution. Ministry has issued draft notification on manufacturing of both BS-V and BS-VI fuel compliant four- wheelers, according to which all new models of 4 wheelers manufactured after April 2019 have to be BS-V compliant. All new models of 4 wheelers produced after April 2021 will be BS-VI fuel compliant and existing models must meet requirement from April 2022.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis paid homage at the 26/11 memorial site at Mumbai Police Gymkhana on 26th November 2015 in what was the 7th year since the attacks took place in November 2008. The then Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, Army Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Mumbai's Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte and Senior Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar were among those killed in the attack.

Second largest diamond in the world discovered in Botswana mine
A 1,111 carat "high quality diamond" has been found at a mine in Botswana and is the biggest find in more than a century. The gem is second in size to Cullinan diamond unearthed in 1905 in S. Africa, and was mined by Lucara Diamond Corp.Botswana is the world's second biggest diamond producer, and Lucara said the gem was the largest ever to be recovered in the nation.

These include : singer Asha Bhosle, tennis star Sania Mirza, veteran actor Kamini Kaushal, farmer Rimppi Kumari, entrepreneur Smriti Nagpal, campaigner Mumtaz Shaikh, and entrepreneur Kanika Tekriwal.

UK Spies are constructing elite cyberoffensive forces to strike at IS fighters and hackers. IS has been trying to develop the capacity to attack British infrastructure such as ATC systems, hospitals and power networks. Britain will also boost spending on cyberdefences and make its cyberstructure simpler apart from building cyber capacity to attack adversaries. This new cyberattack force will be run jointly between GCHQ and defence ministry.

Government has declared the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang), NSCN (K), all its formations and front organisations as a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. A Gazette Notification was issued on November 6th 2015 to this effect. NSCN-K has resorted to terrorism by eliminating civilians and security forces.

For the first time ever, an Indian university has featured in the world university rankings of the top 100 of the Times Higher Education. IISc Bangalore entered the list of universities for engineering and technology with a rank of 99. Top 10 of the list are dominated by US universities like Stanford, CalTech and MIT. Asian universities garnered six spots in the top 30 this year.

The 7th Indo-Russian joint training exercise INDRA 2015 commenced at Mahajan Field Firing Ranges on November 8th 2015. This 14 day training schedule is focused on Counter Terrorism operations. It is being carried out in desert terrain under UN mandate. Exercise will terminate on 20th November 2015.

Marine archaeologists have made a once in a lifetime discovery after locating 22 ancient shipwrecks near the Greek archipelago. The wrecks were uncovered by the expedition crew and date back to 700 BC, around the archipelago of Fourni, which is in the middle of an ancient trade route between Greece, Egypt and Cyprus. The scientists now hold that there could be up to 40 shipwrecks in 17 square miles. The majority of the wrecks date from between 700BC to 600AD but one was found to have sank in the 16th century .Fourni is a collection of 13 islands between the islands of Samos and Icaria and was an important staging post in the long distance trading routes between the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea, Cyprus, and the Levant.

INS Sahyadri is likely to be in Manila till 4th November and is presently on operational deployment in north west pacific South China sea region as part of the Act East Policy of India. This indigenously built warship of Shvalik Class boasts of an impressive array of long range anti-ship missiles, medium and short range surface to air missiles augmented by powerful guns of different calibre providing a shield against numerous types of surface and air threats. The capability to carry two integral multi-role helicopters significantly enhances the capabilities of this ship. INS Sahyadri, is commanded by Captain Kunal Singh Rajkumar. It was inducted into the army on 21st July 2012.

Shaktikanta Das presently Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs under Union Ministry of Finance has been nominated as Director to Central Board of Directors of RBI. Nomination of Das is effective w.e.f 30th October. He is a 1980 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer. Central BoD of RBI governs RBU affairs and is nominated by the Union government including 21 members on board comprising the Governor, 4 Deputy Governors, 10 Directors, two government Official, 4 directors from local boards of RBI which are headquartered at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and New Delhi.