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OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 2015 ISSUE

Highlights of the issue :

What is called Free basics today, was formerly called internet.org prior to September 2015. This initiative by Facebook is meant to provide free access to the internet to the underprivileged in developing nations. Facebook has launched the initiative in 15 nations including India, where it was introduced as internet.org in February 2015 in partnership with Rcom. The main protestors of Free basics are those who support Net-neutrality.

What is Net-neutrality?The idea of Net-neutrality is simple-treat all sites on internet as equal to give every one a fair chance at growth and reject the idea of monopolies.

Why Net-neutralitysupporters are opposing Free Basics?Net-neutrality supporters argue that Free Basics provides free access to a limited number of services but not to all. That, it is not bringing unlimited access of the internet to the people, but access to a very small subset of the internet. These services include some news providers, some entertainment websites and some infotainment websites but each of their competitors were left out, with users having to pay, to access them. Therefore, Free Basic users can't access websites and services that are not currently approved by Facebook.

What does Facebook say about it?Facing the arguments that Free Basics defeats the basic purpose of Net-neutrality, Facebook says that any of the websites and services can apply to be a part of Free Basics, while any telecom operator can offer it to their subscribers. It has also stated that joining up is free, and that current partners have not paid to be a part of the Free Basics

platform.

But the question is if the joining is free, why the platform has the concept of approval and rejection at all?

From October to December each year, a very large part of south India receives upto 30 percent of its annual rainfall from the north-east monsoons. The 2015 south Indian floods were the results of this heavy north-east monsoons. They affected the Coromandel coast region of the south-Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and union territory of Puducherry with Tamil Nadu and the city of Chennai particularly hard-hit. As per sources, more than 400 people were killed and over 18 lakh people were displaced. The losses and damages caused by the 2015 floods makes it the costliest natural disaster of the year.

The heavy floods left the main streets completely waterlogged, bringing the city to a standstill. Many offices, schools and colleges were shut down due to heavy rains. A depression formed in the Bay of Bengal had triggered rains in coastal areas of India's Tamil Nadu state and neighbouring country of Sri Lanka. Heavy floods also battered Chennai's industrial and business hubs leading to losses that run into thousands of crores of rupees. Most automobile companies in Kanchipuram, which houses plants of a dozen leading companies registered huge losses. The rain not only hampered production process for days but also triggered shortage of essential supplies for production to resume.

In many plants, workforce remained less than what was needed for full-strength operation due to limited connectivity and transportation. IT sector also suffered huge losses.

The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalitha announced a five hundred crores relief fund for the flood-affected areas.

Newsletter

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Southern India hit by heavy rains and deadly floods

Odd-even strategy to curb pollution in Delhi

Free Basics-For and against

India updates

Sports updates

Awards and Recognitions

International updates

Business updates

Environment updates

Major days

Obituary

Rewind 2015-Top newsmakers and issues

Current affairs quiz

Cooking time

Free Basics -for and against

Southern India hit by heavy rainsand deadly floods

Recently WHO declared Delhi to be the most polluted city in the world. In this backdrop of public health emergency, Delhi government has chosen to implement a system of odd-even road rationing. This rule would define which car can be driven on a particular date. On even dates, only cars with license plates ending with an even number will be allowed on city roads and on odd dates, cars with license plates ending with an odd number will be allowed.

Off late, the city has been blanketed in grey smog and there is a sharp hike in pollution related illness during the winter months.

stThis initiative which is effective from 1 January, 2016 aims to reduce the number of vehicles on road and hence reduce pollution also to some extent. It shall also create awareness among people that how alarming the pollution condition has become and shall also promote public transport and non-motorized ways of travelling which is the need of the hour.

However, the rule shall be implemented with cer tain exemptions keeping in mind the physically disabled, women and

stspecial sections of the society. The scheme has been started as a two week trial starting from 1 January 2016 in the Indian capital.

Odd-even strategy to curbpollution in Delhi

OCTOBER - 2015uUnion Ministry of Human Resource Development issued

guidelines as Mid-Day Meal Rules-2015 for mid day meals to be tested by labs every month.

uIndia became the world's largest producer of cotton by overtaking China.

rd thuIndian Air Force celebrated its 83 anniversary on 8 October

2015 at the Hindon Air base, Ghaziabad.th

uPrime Minister Narendra Modi lays foundation stone for 4 container terminal of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai.

uAccounts opened under the 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana' have now crossed the mark of Rs. 25000 crores.

uPM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Andhra Pradesh's new capital city Amaravati at Uddandarayunipalem village in Guntur district.

uRailway Minister Suresh Prabhu announced that the country's first ever double-decker Shatabdi express shall run between the tracks of Mumbai and Goa.

NOVEMBER - 2015uExternal Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Norwegian

counterpart Borge Brende, co-chaired a bilateral conference on trade and investments to explore pioneer opportunities.

uDelhi Metro has become the first metro service in the country to be certified with International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

uIn the Bihar Assembly elections, the Grand Alliance of Nitish Kumar surpassed the BJP led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) in all regions of Bihar with vote share of 41.9%. Nitish Kumar once again became the Chief Minister of Bihar.

thuPresident of India Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the 35 India

International Trade Fair (IITF-2015) in New Delhi.

uPrime Minister Narendra Modi was on a three day visit to United Kingdom from 12 Nov.-14th Nov. wherein, 27 deals worth 9.2 billion pounds were signed between India and U.K.

DECEMBER - 2015uArvind Subramaniam committee suggested the GST (Goods and

Service Tax) rate at 17-18%.

uJapanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was on a three day visit to India wherein 16 agreements were signed between the two countries.

uUnion government links LPG subsidy to income-no LPG subsidy for taxpayers who earn over Rs. 10 lakh annually.

uLok Sabha passed the Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Bill, 2015 to amend the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965.

Awards and RecognitionsIndia updates

Sports updates

uSania Mirza and Swiss player Martina Hingis grasped the seventh title by bagging the Wuhan Open women's doubles trophy.

uIndian cricketer Virendra Sehwag announced retirement from all forms of international cricket and IPL. Zaheer Khan announced retirement from international cricket as well.

uGurpreet Singh Sandhu created history by becoming the first Indian footballer to play for a first division European club.

uRavichandran Ashwin became the fastest Indian bowler to reach 150 test wickets.

uP.V. Sindhu won the women's singles badminton title at the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold after defeating Japan's Minatsu Mitani.

uTwo new teams based out of Rajkot and Pune shall replace the suspended Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals at the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL).

uIndian golfer Anirban Lahiri won the Asian Tour's Order of Merit Crown-2015.

uVirat Kohli awarded the Polly Umrigar Award for BCCI cricketer of the year-2015.

uAndhra Pradesh to host the 2019 National games.

u'Tennis Queen' - Serena Williams named as sports person of 2015.

uMusic composer A.R. Rehman t h

b e s t o w e d w i t h t h e 5 Hridaynath Mangeshkar award in Mumbai.

uRBI governor Raghuram Rajan recognised as Central Bank Governor of the Year for Asia 2014.

uNobel prize winners-2015

- Takaaki Kajita, Ar thur B. McDonald

(for Physics)

- Paul L.Modrich, Tomas Lindahl, Aziz Sancar

(for Chemistry)

- Svetlana Alexievich

(for Literature)

- William C. Campbell, Santoshi Omura, Tu Youyou

(for Physiology or Medicine)

- Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet

(for Peace)

uDenmark's top literary award the Hans Christian Andersen prize awarded to Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami.

uUttar Pradesh entered into the Guiness Book of world records for planting the most number of saplings in one day.

uNoted Marathi actor Prashant Damle conferred with the Master Dinanath Mangeshkar award for his outstanding contribution in the field of theatre, film and music.

uVaranasi and Jaipur became members of UNESCO creative cities network.

uBollywood veteran and legendary actor Dilip Kumar presented with the Padma Vibhushan by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

uLionel Messi wins the best player of the year award as part of the Globe Soccer Awards-2015.

uEminent Gujarati novelist, poet a n d c r i t i c R a g h u v e e r

stChaudhary chosen for the 51 Jnanpith Award-2015.

uIndian Oil Corporation (IOC) ranks no. 1 in the Fortune 500 Indian Companies 2015.

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uAditya Birla joins e-commerce portal abof.com - an online fashion portal for sale of apparel, footwear and accessories.

uKotak Mahindra General Insurance Company received approval of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to commence business as an insurance company.

uNestle India entered into a tie-up with Snapdeal for the re-sale of Maggi.

uICICI Bank tied up with railway's e-ticketing platform (IRCTC) to sell rail tickets through its website.

uBiocon launched the generic version of Hepatitis-C drug 'Harroni' in India approved by the Drugs Controller General of India.

uFlipkart to sell cars and motorcycles online. For this it has signed a deal with Khivraj motors for Bajaj motorcycles and Kalyani motors for Maruti Suzuki cars.

Environment

Business

International updates

OCTOBER - 2015uIndia shall be chairing the G-20 Summit in 2018, as decided by the G-20 member

nations.uGerman chancellor Angela Merkel was on a 3 day visit (Oct 4-6), 2015 to India

wherein 18 MoUs were signed between the two nations to boost industrial investment and create skilled jobs.

uKhadga Prasad Sharma Oli elected as new Prime Minister of Nepal. He became the first PM under the newly adopted constitution of Nepal.

uChinese President Xi Jinping abandons China's decade old policy of 'One child' and allows couples to have two children.

NOVEMBER - 2015uSingapore ranked first in world's healthiest countries list followed by Italy and

Australia.uMaldives President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom announced an emergency in

the country for 30 days.uNobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won the Myanmar elections-2015.uAlbania and India signed an agreement on the removal of visa requirements for

diplomatic and service passport holders.u24th Commonwealth heads of Government met in Malta-India joins UK, Australia

to help poor nations combat climate change.

DECEMBER - 2015uUnited Nations climate change conference-2015 held in Paris. World leaders of

20 countries launched the 'Mission Innovation' for accelerating clean energy revolution across the world.

uIndia and Japan inked a protocol for amending the existing convention for double taxation avoidance that provides for effective exchange of information in tax matters.

uGambia's President Yahya Jammeh declared the tiny west African country an Islamic Republic.

uPeoples Party of Spain led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has won the 2015 general elections.

rduIndia has ranked 3 in the world after China and the US for issuing 12 million

passports in the year 2015.

* October 1 : World Vegetarian Day* October 2 : International Day of Non-

Violence/Gandhi Jayanti* October 16 : World Food Day* October 24 : United Nations Day* November 13 : World Kindness Day* November 25 : World Television Day* November 26 : National Milk Day* December 1 : World AIDs Day* December 10 : Human Rights Day* December 15 : International Tea Day* December 23 : Kisan Divas (Farmer's Day

in India)* December 29 : International Bio-Diversity

Day

Major days...

u133 new species of plants, 26 species of fish, 10 new species of amphibians, one reptile, one bird and one mammal discovered in Himalayas by World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

uThe famous Dudhwa National Park, situated at the Indo-Nepal border, opened up for the public with hundreds of tourists from across the country pouring in to witness the jungle safari.

uAmerican engineers developed a new material that could transform sea water into drinking water by filtering through extremely small holes called nanopores.

uA 1,111 carat high quality diamond discovered at a mine in Botswana.uA new specie of tree frog 'Ghatixalus Magnus' was discovered in the Western Ghats in India. uScientists of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have discovered a new marine species of eel

(Gymnothorax Mishrai) along the coast of Digha in Purba Medinapur district of West Bengal.

Obituary

uRenowned music director and lyricist Ravindra Jain passed away. He was 71.

uPopular Punjabi singer Labh Janjua passes away in October, 2015.

uHero Moto Corp. patriach and doyen of Indian two-wheeler and cycle industry - 'Brijmohan Lall Munjal' passes away at the age of 92. He was among the top 30 richest people in India.

uVishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal passed away at the age of 89.

uBritish novelist Peter Dickinson passed away at the age of 88.

uIconic Marathi poet and recipient of Padma Bhushan, Mangesh Keshav Padgaonkar passed away at the age of 86.

uVeteran farmer leader and renowned agro-economist Sharad Joshi passed away.

uVeteran Hindi film actress Sadhana known for popularising the fashionable Sadhana cut passed away in Mumbai on December 25, 2015. She was one of the top actresses in the 1960s and the early 1970s, a pe r iod rega rded as Bollywood's golden era.

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Newsmakers

SUNDAR PICHAIThis Chennai born techie was promoted to the helm of Google in August-2015. This 43 year old Chennai technological executive has a metallurgical engineering degree from IIT-Kharagpur and then went on to study at Stanford and Wharton. He joined Google in 2004 and is best known for his contributions to make Chrome the world's most famous browser.

The "Grand Alliance" win in Bihar was powered by RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and led by Nitish Kumar's calm and sober leadership.

In many ways, the JD (U) and RJD fought the election not as two separate parties, but as a single party and were supported by the Congress, which can take the credit of bringing the two rivals together.

LALU NITISH TIE-UP

BABA RAMDEVIn 2015, Baba Ramdev the yoga guru proved that he could earn a fortune as well when his Patanjali Ayurved earned Rs. 2000 crore turnover. Competing in the FMCG sector, his business venture is producing more and more consumables, the latest being the Patanjali noodles which has stepped in at a time when the Maggi noodles is trying to earn back its lost reputation.

Beyond Bollywood and Indian film industry Priyanka Chopra is making waves on American T.V. She has bagged the role of Alex Parish in the highly publicised ambitious thriller around FBI and its chase to find terrorists. The show is named 'Quantico'. Her strong screen presence and outstanding performance has earned her acclaim and popularity even in foreign lands.

PRIYANKA CHOPRA

SANIA MIRZASania Mirza injected new life into her career with a brilliant performance in doubles this year along with her partner Swiss legend Martina Hingis.

The pair came up with back to back Grand Slam crowns at Wimbledon and the US Open before scripting a stirring charge at the WTA finals in Singapore. She also reached the World No.1 rank in April-2015.

Saina Nehwal added many more feathers to her cap in 2015. She became the first Indian women shuttler to enter the final of the All England championship, the first Indian women shuttler to be ranked no. 1 in the world and also the first Indian to enter the final of a world championship.

SAINA NEHWAL

Issues & Events

NET NEUTRALITYThe debate over Net- neutrality intensified this year. Net-neutrality or the principal of treating all data on the Internet without discrimination came into limelight after telecom companies saw revenues from call and message services taking a hit due to applications such as whatsapp and viber. However, the debate remained unresolved and is likely to rule in 2016 as well.

Efforts by the centre to pass the Goods and Service Tax Bill have been derailed. Goods and Service Tax would be a comprehensive indirect tax on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services throughout India, to replace the tax levied by the Central and State governments. The introduction of GST would be a significant step in the reform of indirect taxation.

GOODS AND SERVICE TAX (GST)

MAGGI BANThe sale of Maggi noodles was banned after samples were found to contain impermissible levels of lead and monosodium glutamate. The entire issue saw a clash between the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and Nestle, with the noodles coming back in the market after five months of retesting rebranding and recalls.

An increased level of call drops affected most major cities in 2015. The issue also led to a clash between the telecom regulators and the operators. The Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) proposed imposing a penalty of Re. 1 per call drop, a move which was strongly opposed by the telecom companies. Rather, they are ready to collaborate with TRAI to address the issue.

CALL DROPS

SEVENTH PAY COMMISSIONThe Seventh Pay Commission recommended a 23.55% hike in pay for central government employees with effect from January, 2016. The minimum pay for government employees was recommended to be set at Rs. 18000 per month. This will cost the centre Rs. 1.02 lakh crore, bumping up its revenue expenditure by 23% but the government is ready to bear the burden.

In August 2015, Reserve Bank of India issued payment bank licences to 11 firms. This included telecom companies Vodafone, Airtel, non banking financial company Cholamandalam Distribution Services Ltd., Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla Nuvo, and individuals like Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Sun Pharmaceuticals MD, Dilip Sanghvi.

PAYMENTS BANK LICENCES ISSUED

1. Free Basics is the initiative by which social networking site?2. Recently which International body declared Delhi to be the most polluted

city in the world?3. Which term basically refers to treating all data on the Internet as same or

equal?4. India became the largest producer of cotton by overtaking which

country?5. Name the Japanese Prime Minister who visited India in December 2015?6. Who recently became the fastest Indian bowler to reach 150 Test

wickets?7. Name two Indian cricketers who retired from International cricket

recently.8. Name the Nobel Laureate who won the Myanmar elections in the year

2015.9. On which day is the Human Rights Day celebrated the world over?10.Name the Chennai born techie and engineer who recently became the

head of 'Google'.

Current affairs quiz Sweet pancakes-coking time!

This new year try this sweet recipe of pancakes that is easy to make and yummy to eat. But remember to do it in the supervision of an adult.

Things required :• 1 cup flour • 1 tbsp sugar • 1 egg (lightly beaten) • 3/4th cup milk • 50 gms butter (melted)

Method :1. In a bowl whisk flour, sugar, beaten egg and add milk a

little at a time until batter is smooth and lump free.

2. In a hot pan, brush melted butter and pour 1/4 cup measures for each pancake. When it is golden brown from bottom, turn the side.

3. Take off from heat, pour honey or melted chocolate and enjoy!

Hi friends!

"A New Year, a new start and way to go..." As you enter into a fresh new year, keep your spirits high and resolve to perform better than the previous year so that you inch a step ahead than before. This new year commit yourself to explore new areas of knowledge and keep yourself updated with all that is happening around you.

Here is wishing you a very Happy New Year from the entire team of Acevision Publisher Pvt. Ltd.

If you have any suggestions or inputs for this newsletter write in to us at acevision.edu@gmail.com

- Editorial Team

Rewind 2015 - Top Newsmakers and issues

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ANSWERS : 1. Facebook 2. World Health Organisation (WHO) 3. Net neutrality 4. China 5. Shinzo Abe 6. Ravichandran Ashwin 7. Virendra Sehwag & Zaheer Khan

th8. Aung San Suu Kyi 9. 10 December 10. Sundar Pichai