11 December 2018 - Daily Current Affairs

Atul Sahai has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the New India Assurance for a period of five years.
The post had been lying vacant since July 2018.
Currently, Mr. Sahai is the General Manager at Oriental Insurance.

The New India Assurance Co. Ltd is a public sector general insurance company of India.
It is the largest general insurance company of India based on gross premium collection inclusive of foreign operations.

Important Dates

The International Mountain Day is being observed every year on 11^th December.
The theme for 2018 IMD is ‘Mountains Matter’.
International Mountain Day was established by the UN General Assembly in 2003 to encourage sustainable development in mountains.

Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha (Minister of State for HRD in Government of India) resigned from the Union council of ministers.
He has sent his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he is quitting the BJP-led NDA alliance.
He is a Member of Parliament from Karakat Loksabha in Rohtas district, Bihar.

Myntra’s chief executive officer (CEO) Ananth Narayanan has resigned from his role with his position set to be abolished.
Myntra is the unit of Walmart Inc-owned Flipkart.
Flipkart’s executive Amar Nagaram has been given the responsibility to head Myntra.
Mithun Sundar (Myntra's chief revenue officer) and Manpreet Ratia (human resources head) have also resigned.

Note:

Myntra is an Indian fashion e-commerce company headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
The company was founded in 2007 to sell personalized gift items.

The indigenously built Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile Agni-5 has been test-fired successfully from Abdul Kalam island under Chandipur Interim Test Range.
Previously the test of Agni 4 was unsuccessful.
The length of Agni-5 is 17 meters length and 2 meters diameter, the missile can hit the target from of 5 thousand kilometres distance.
The first test was conducted in 2012 from ITR Chandipur in Balasore district.

Note:

Agni-V is an intercontinental ballistic missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation of India(DRDO).

The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections for 2018-19 up to November 2018 show that Gross Collections are at 6.75 lakh crore rupees.
This is 15.7% higher than the Gross Collections for the corresponding period of last year.
The refunds amounting to 1.23 lakh crore rupees have been issued during April to November this year which is 20.8% higher than refunds issued during the same period in the preceding year.
The Net Collections after adjusting for refunds have increased by 14.7 per cent to 5.51 lakh crore rupees from April to November.
Net Direct Tax collections represent 48% of the total Budget Estimates of Direct Taxes for 2018-19.

According to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, The Central Government contribution will be raised to 14 per cent in NPS (existing 10%).
The tax exemption limit for lump sum withdrawal on exit has been enhanced to 60%.
Now, the entire withdrawal will be exempted from income tax.
Freedom of choice will be provided for selection of Pension Funds and pattern of investment to central government employees.
Government employee contribution under Tier-II of NPS will be covered under Section 80 C for deduction up to 1.50 lakh rupees for the purpose of income tax.

Note:

National Pension System (NPS) is a voluntary defined contribution pension system in India.
NPS, like PPF and EPF is an EEE (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt) instrument in India where entire corpus escapes tax at maturity and entire pension withdrawal amount is tax-free.

The 1^st International Conference on ‘Sustainable Water Management’ was held at Indian School of Business (ISB) in Mohali, Punjab.
The conference was organized by Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) under the aegis of the National Hydrology Project of the Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

The Union Government and the Asian Development Bank has signed a loan agreement of 31 million dollars to develop Tourism in Tamil Nadu.
The Project will also help the State in preserving the natural and cultural heritage.
The activities under the project will also boost economic opportunities for the local people.
The Project will support the conservation and restoration of eight heritage monuments, one museum and three temples.

The Celebrations of week-long ‘Vivah Panchami’ begins in the historic Janakpur city, Nepal.
Yogi Adityanath (Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh) will also grace the occasion.
Thousands of devotees from India and Nepal including hundreds of Sadhus attended the “Swayamvar”.
The festival is observed every year to mark the occasion.
Vivah Panchami also highlights age-old social and cultural bonding between India and Nepal that has been cherished for centuries.

Note:

According to Hindu mythology, Lord Rama married Goddess Sita (the daughter of King Janak of Janakpur) on Vivah Panchami.

Goa’s Prathamesh Maulingkar (27-years) has become the first Asian/Indian to win Mister Supranational title at Krynica-Zdroj, Poland.
He defeated 37 contestants from all over the world in the final round to win the coveted title.
Mister Supranational (Poland) was adjudged first runner-up, Mister Supranational (Brazil) was adjudged second runner-up.

Madhya Pradesh opener Ajay Rohera (21-year) etched his name in the record books by slamming the highest first-class score on debut.
He remained unbeaten on 267 against Hyderabad in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group-B Cricket in Indore.
Earlier, the record was held by former Mumbai stalwart Amol Mazumdar, who had hit 260 versus Haryana at Faridabad in 1994.