Current Affairs - 30th April & 1st May 2014

European Union bans import of Alphonso mangoes and vegetables from India

EU has put a ban on the supply of Alphonso mangoes and four vegetables:- eggplant, taro plant. Bitter gourd and snake gourd from India from 1st May as the sample were considered to be of dubious quality and pest infected. The decision is applicable till 2015 and any change on the supply of it will occur only after 2015. This move by EU has led to a decline in rates of alphonso mango in the domestic market.

NetMundial 2014

NET Mundial, a global conference about how the internet should be governed and who should govern it was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The decision to hold such a conference came after recent attempts of snooping by the US authorities. The whole conference was important to decide on issues of privacy and legality of internet. The conference came out with two conclusions:- where few countries wanted UN to assume its role to manage and govern internet whereas a few other wanted many NGOs and countries to participate in the same.

Californian mite : The fastest animal on the Earth

Paratarsotomus macropalpis or the Californian mite is the fastest animal in the world with a speed of 322 body lengths per second as against 16 body lengths of Cheetah.

India becomes world’s third largest economy in PPP

India overtakes Japan to become the world’s third largest economy in terms of Purchasing Power Parity as per a report by World Bank’s International Comparison Program (ICP). China become the 2nd largest and US remains at top position.

International Dance Day observed on 29th April

This day was introduced in 1982 by International Dance Council (UNESCO partner NGO) to promote the art of dance.

Summer Youth Olympics 2014

This event is to be held in Nanjing, China from 16 to 28 August 2014. It is the second edition of summer youth Olympics after the first one which was held in Singapore. The winter youth Olympics will be held in Lillehammer, Norway in 2016.

IOC signs agreement with UN

International Olympics Commission (IOC) signed an agreement with the UN to use the power of sports in order to promote world peace and co operation.

TDSAT revokes ban on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea

Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) allowed intra circle roaming deals for 3G services in circles where the above three telecom operators do not have spectrum. These 3 operators have earlier signed agreement to provide 3G services by intra circle roaming where they don’t have spectrums which was earlier banned by Department of Telecom.

Bank of America miscalculated its capital

BoA was recently in news when it miscalculated a measure of its capital leading to a reduction in capital to $4 billion.

New ambassador to Norway

Former navy chief N.A.K. Browne was appointed as the next Indian ambassador to Norway. He will succeed RK Tyagi.