15 May 2016

PM Narendra Modi, Sri Lankan President Release - Simhastha Declaration

The Prime Minister along with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has released ‘Simhastha Declaration’ at Ninora village in Ujjain.

Both the leaders addressed the concluding session of the three day International Vichar Mahakumbh held on side-lines of the month-long Simhastha mela.

PM Narendra Modi requested saints to conduct Vichar Kumbh every year with devotees and discuss social issues like the need to educate the girl child or plant trees.

Modi also called Kumbh as the biggest example of excellent management and he advised academic institutions to adopt Kumbh as a management case study.

Few Key Highlights of Simhastha Declaration - 

• Simhastha Declaration has 51 sacred points for betterment of mankind that will start new discourse not only in India but around the world.

• This declaration is also a prescription on how a duty-centred system that had been the origin of Indian philosophy of life is relevant in today’s India.

2016 Red Flag Aerial combat exercises concludes in – US

Among Important International Current Affairs, The multilateral Red Flag Aerial combat exercises between US, NATO and allied forces and India Air Force (IAF) concluded in Alaska, US.
India had participated for the second time in such an exercise after 2008.

Do You Know – 

• Main objective of IAF’s participation in this inter-continental exercise was to showcase its capability in undertaking integrated air operations and gain also operational lessons.

• Also in this edition, IAF flew 10 aircraft viz. 4 Su-30MKIs, 4 Jaguars and 2 IL-78 aerial refuelling tankers and a team of over 170 personnel was part of the exercise. 

• However, the exercise was conducted multiple simulated scenario to provide 

realistic settings with a Red Force, defending their airspace and assets and a Blue Force acting as offensive side.

SEBI approves appointment of Ashok Chawla as NSE chairman

· Mumbai based India’s biggest exchange, NSE, had nominated Ashok Chawla as its new chairman after obtaining a clearance from the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India.

· He is set fill the shoes of previous holder S.B. Mathur.

·  Chawla retired as CCI chairman in January after being at the helm for nearly five years. He has also served as finance secretary and civil aviation secretary.


·        Earlier this year he was appointed as chairman of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and as Additional Director by Yes Bank in March.

Income Declaration Scheme for domestic black money to commence from June 01

 The 'Income Declaration Scheme' or four month window for declaration of domestic black money will commence from 1st of next month.It will remain in force till 30th of September

·        Finance Ministry said, declarations can be filed online or with the Principal Commissioners of Income-tax. It said, surcharge and penalty must be made latest by 30th November, 2016.

·        The scheme is part of Finance Act, 2016 which seeks to provide an opportunity to all persons who have not declared their income correctly in previous years to come forward and declare their undisclosed incomes.


·        Under this scheme, the declared income would be taxed at the rate of 30 per cent plus 'Krishi Kalyan' cess of 25 per cent on taxes payable and a penalty at the rate of 25 per cent of the taxes payable.

ISRO ex-chairman UR Rao becomes first Indian in International Astronautical Federation’s ‘Hall of Fame

·Former ISRO scientist and Professor Udupi Ramachandra Rao will be honoured with the 2016 IAF Hall of Fame Award by the International Astronautical Federations for his immense contribution to the progress of astronautics.

·This honour consists of a permanent gallery of these personalities, including a citatio

n, biographical information and a picture, in a special part of the IAF web presence.

·Also this year’s 67th International Astronautical Congress will be held in Mexico later this year.

ISRO set to undertake maiden launch of its own version of 'space shuttle

·        For the first time in its history, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to undertake the maiden launch of its very own version of a 'space shuttle', a fully made-in-India effort.

·        India's space port at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh will witness the launch of the indigenously made Reusable Launch Vehicle - Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD).

·        This flight will test the capability of the vehicle to survive a re-entry at speeds higher than that of sound, so it is called a hyper sonic experiment (HEX).

·        Today, a sleek winged body almost the weight and size of a sports utility vehicle (SUV) is being given final touches at Sriharikota.

·        K Sivan, director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, says, these are just the first baby steps towards a big leap