Litas Currency,Jaipur Literature Festival,UAE Most Trustful Nation,Rainbow Revolution,Bilateral Investment Treaty

1. Litas was the currency of Lithuania before it acceded to the Eurozone.

2. Justice S.K. Sinha has been appointed as the 21st chief Justice of Bangladesh and he has the honour of being the first Hindu CJ of Bangladesh.

3. European Parliament has passed a resolution and has accused India for the serious breach of human rights while restricting the movement of Italian marines in the February 2012 incident. India has opposed their trial being conducted in Italy or any other International dispute mechanism.

4. Controversial 2010 published book is written by author Perumal Murugan. The name of book is Madhorubhagan.

5. Brahmo Samaj was founded on August 20, 1828. Its founders were Raja Ram Mohan Roy with Dwarkanath Tagore and others. 19th January 2015 was the occasion of 185th Maghotsav which are the annual celebrations of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj.

6. Discussion to suitably amend the colonial era Land Acquisition Act of 1894 started in 1980. After around 30 years of discussion LARR Act 2013 was brought in UPA regime and after around 1 year the ordinance bringing amendments in LARR 2013 was introduced.

The acquisition of multi cropped agricultural land was prohibited in LARR Act 2013 but it has been allowed in this ordinance. Community consensus which was 80% in private projects and 70% in public private partnership in LARR Act 2013 is done away with in the latest ordinance.

7. Proposed Benefits of the Goods and Services Tax –

(a) In the present tax and excise regime different rates apply for different commodities. GST will remove this problem of different duties on different items and is most likely to bring in a uniform duty system.

(b) Central excise tariff which has different classification will be replaced by one uniform rate.

(c) Normally in order to avoid the Inter State Entry Tax and the Central Sales Tax the producers sell their item of produce in the state of production but with the introduction of GST, Central Sales Tax and Inter State Entry Tax will be abolished and good quality manufactured produce will be available in states other than the state of produce.

(d) Due to difference in the amount of Central and Sales Tax imposed the price of the same commodity in different states is different. This GST will make rates uniform all over the country.

(e) Duty on good and services is different so invoicing is elaborate and complex. With the introduction of GST one rate invoice will be prepared. 

8. Negotiations for a BIT (Bilateral Investment Treaty) or BIPPA (Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement) are going on between India and the US since 2010. This treaty provides protection to the companies making investment thereby encouraging more investments.

9. Ques. What is Bay, Gulf, Strait, Isthmus.

Bay is a water body that is surrounded by land from 3 sides. There are 2 types - Small Bays and Large Bays. Example of Small Bay is White Bay whereas large bays like Persian Gulf, Gulf of Mexico, Hudson Bay are called as Gulf. So all Gulf are Bays but all Bays are not Gulfs.

Strait is narrow strip of water between land which connects two huge water bodies.

Isthmus is a narrow strip of land surrounded by water connecting two huge land masses.

10. India with 2,226 tigers has 70% of the tiger population of the World. In 2014, the counting of tigers came to 2226 from 1706 in 2010.

11. Jaipur Literature Festival began on 21st January 2015. 

12. UAE is the most trustful nation of the World standing at 84%, whereas India is second at 79%.

13. On 31st December, 2014 total installed capacity of cumulative grid interactive renewable energy was 33,792 MW whereas on 31st December, 2013 the installed capacity was 29,989 MW. The break up of 31st December, 2014 –

Wind (22,465 MW), Bagasse cogeneration (2800 MW), Biomass (1365 MW), Small Hydro power (3991 MW), Solar power (3063 MW).

14. Ques. What is Rainbow Revolution in India?

Ans. The National Agricultural Policy which was launched in July 2000 was called Rainbow Revolution and it comprises the following –

(Food grain) Green Revolution, White Revolution (Milk), Yellow Revolution (Oilseeds), Blue Revolution (Fisheries), Golden Revolution (Fruits), Black/Brown Revolution (Non Conventional Energy), Silver Revolution (Eggs), Round Revolution (Potato), Red Revolution (Tomato/Meat). Grey Revolution for fertilizers.