Current Affairs on 01-JAN-2015

Government has decided to separate the post of Chairman and Managing Director
(MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in public sector banks.
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With this decision government is breaking the tradition of having the heads of
state-run banks act as both chairman and managing director.

As per the Finance Ministry, the Chairman in public sector banks other than State
Bank of India (SBI) will be a part- time board member. He will preside over the board
meetings and will not be an Executive Chairman.

This means that for the first time, PSU banks will have a non-Executive
Chairman, giving operational responsibility to Managing Director and Chief Executive
Officer (CEO).

In pursuance of the decision, the government has appointed four Managing

Directors and CEOs of following 4 PSU banks

Koteeswaran was named as MD and CEO of Indian Overseas Bank.

Srinivas was named as MD and CEO of United Bank of India.

Animesh Chauhan was named MD and CEO of Oriental Bank of Commerce.

Kishore Sansi was named MD and CEO of Vijaya Bank.

Above 4 MDs and CEOs will have tenure of 3 years or till the date of
superannuation, whichever is earlier. These appointments were made based on the
recommendations of Appointments Board chaired by the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) Governor.

Government also has decided to go for a fresh selection procedure for the post of
Chairman and MD and CEO in Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and Canara
Bank, which are A category large banks.

IAS officer M Sathiyavathy has become first woman to be appointed as Director

General (DG) of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

She will succeed Prabhat Kumar, to become first woman to become the chief aviation
regulator for period of three years till 2017.
About DGCA

DGCA is Indias regulatory body for civil aviation. It comes under the aegis of Union
Ministry of Civil Aviation.

As a regulatory body, it seeks to promote

Safe and efficient Air Transportation through regulation and proactive safety oversight
system inIndia.

Enforce civil air regulations, air safety and airworthiness standards in India as
per International standards.

Government has signed a loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for
75 million dollars and 1.8 million dollar grant for Karnataka Integrated Urban
WaterManagement Investment Program (KIUWMIP)

This loan fund will be used in the three towns of Byadagi, Davanagere and Harihar of
Karnataka under the KIUWMIP.

This loan seeks to expand and upgrade: urban water supply and sanitation
infrastructure, improve water resource planning, monitoring and service delivery, and
strengthen operational and administrative capacity in these towns.

As per this agreement, the loan has a 25 year term including a grace period of five
years.

Implications: This project by utilizing the loan fund will help these urban towns to
increase water treatment capacity by 15,000 cubic meters per day. It will also help expand
and upgrade more than 1,000 kilometers of water pipelines and increase sewage treatment
capacity by 48,000 cubic meters per day, thereby promoting water efficiency and
environmental protection.

About Karnataka Integrated Urban Water Management Investment Program (KIUWMIP)

KIUWMIP- is an investment program that aims to improve water resource management

in urban areas ofKarnatakaStatein a holistic and sustainable.

It seeks to modernize and expand urban water supply and sanitation (UWSS) by
strengthening relevant institutions related to it in order to enhance their efficiency,
productivity and sustainability in water use.

It takes help of innovative social instruments like as public-private partnership (PPP) or

reform oriented incentive funds.

This Program also aims to improve the condition of more fragile environments located in
North Karnataka that are increasingly affected by water resource degradation by promoting
climate-resilient development, capacity-development techniques for conducive adaptation.

Union government has renamed Planning commission as National Institution for

Transforming India (NITI) Aayog .
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The renaming of the Planning Commission is being seen as the first step towards
replacing it with a new-age institution.

About (NITI) Aayog

It will serve as a Think Tank of the government i.e. a directional and policy
dynamo.
It will also provide governments at the central and state levels with relevant

strategic and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of policy
formulation.
This includes matters of national and international import on the economic front,

dissemination of best practices from within the country as well as from other nations,
the infusion of new policy ideas and specific issue-based support.
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It will work towards the following objectives

Evolve a shared vision of national development priorities

Foster cooperative federalism

Develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village level

Focus on technology upgradation, among other things.

Composition

Chairperson- Prime Minister.

Governing Council- It will consist of- Chief Ministers (of States) and Lt. Governors
(ofUnionTerritories).
Regional Council- It will be formed on need basis. It will compromise Chief

Ministers (of States) and Lt. Governors (ofUnionTerritories).

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Vice-Chairperson- To be appointed by the Prime Minister.

Members- Full time Basis.

Part time members- Maximum of 2. They will from leading universities research
organizations and other relevant institutions on a rotational basis.
Ex Officio members- Maximum of 4 members of the Union Council of Ministers to

be nominated by the Prime Minister.

Special invitees- They will be nominated by the Prime Minister and will be

experts, specialists and practitioners with relevant domain knowledge as special

invitees.
Chief Executive Officer- Appointed by the Prime Minister for a fixed tenure, in the

rank of Secretary to the Government of India.

Background

Governments decision comes after the Prime Minister Narendra Modis 2014
Independence Day announcement that the Planning Commission would be replaced with a
new-age institution.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 7th December 2014 had held consultation
meeting with Chief Ministers of states, where most CMs had favoured restructuring of the
Socialist-era planning body. However, some Congress Chief Ministers opposed disbanding
of the existing set-up.

Delhi police has launched women safety mobile application Himmat. It was
launched by the Union home minister Rajnath Singh inNew Delhi. It is an android
based mobile app, which aims to cater employed women who have smartphones
and travel alone late in the night. This application will allow women to send a
distress call to Police Control Room (PCR) and their relatives in case of any
emergency.

Key facts of women safety mobile app Himmat

In case to use this app, user has to download this app on their smartphone.

After downloading the app, new user has to register them with the Delhi Policewebsite
by sharing their name, mobile number and that of a minimum of two relatives/friends.

In case of emergency, user can send an alert by shaking her phone or by pressing
the power button/soft button.

As soon as the distress button is pressed, it will trigger a 30-second audio and video
recording on the phone which will be relayed to the PCR. The victim will get a call back
from the PCR.

After distress button is pressed, SMS alert consisting of all the details of the victim,
including her location, time will be forwarded to the PCR. Then from PCR, SMS alert it will
be forwarded to the police patrol cars in the area and the local station house officer (SHO)
through the Delhi Police cyber highway.

In case of emergency, SMS alert will also be sent to minimum of 5 friends and relatives
of the user. It will also post a status on the victims Facebook and Twitter accounts.

In order to tackle false SOS alerts/ alarms the app is provided with inbuilt feature which
cancels the registration after 3 such (False SOS alerts) incidents. But, the user can reregister to re-activate the facility.

Former Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs Kamala Sinha passed away in
Syracuse, New York in US. She was 82. She was born in Dhaka (now in Bangladesh) on

30 September 1932. She is grandniece of Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
She was a member of former Prime Minister I K Gujrals cabinet from 1997-98