Top 10 Current Affairs of 2015: Events of Impact

1.

Rajya Sabha passed Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2015

• It replaces the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000
• It permits juveniles between 16-18 years age to be tried as adults for heinous offences
• Juvenile Justice Boards & Child Welfare Committees to be constituted in each district
• It also proposed several rehabilitation and social integration measures

2.

COP 21 under UNFCCC adopted Paris Agreement on Climate Change

• Agreement facilitates GHG emissions reduction measures post-Kyoto (2020)
• It seeks to limit global average temperature below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels
• Developed countries to raise $100 billion per year as the floor by 2020
• Provides review of the implementation of agreement every five year
• The Conference of Parties 21 (COP 21) was attended by 192 parties including India

3.

UNGA adopted Sustainable Development Goals 2030

• SDG 2030 is titled Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• Adopted by 193-Member United Nations 4.General Assembly (UNGA) on 25 September 2015
• Composed of 17 goals & 169 targets to wipe out poverty, fight inequality & tackle climate change
• They seek to build on Millennium Development Goals and complete what these did not achieve

4.

SC declared NJAC Act, 2014 as unconstitutional

• It declared 99^th Constitutional Amendment Act as unconstitutional and void
• It upheld the Collegium system to appoint the judges of higher juiciary
• Collegium System was established by the SC in 1993
• NJAC Act, 2014 was passed by the Parliament in 2014
• It was notified in Gazette of India in April 2015

5.

Iran’s Parliament approved Vienna Agreement on Iran Nuclear Programme

• The agreement was signed by Iran and P5+1 countries
• Restrictions on defensive arms will be lifted before those on offensive arms
• Violation of deal could lead to automatic snap-back of sanctions within 65 days
• Iran also had agreed to store no more than 300 kg of low-enriched uranium

6.

1974 Land Border Agreement between India and Bangladesh came into effect

• 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in Coochbehar District of West Bengal amalgamated with India
• 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladeshi territory integrated with that country
• Boundary pillars known as British Pillars which demarcated enclave lands was dismantled
• The transfer helped about 50000 people to get citizenship of either country

7.

RBI issued guidelines on marginal cost of funds methodology

• The new methodology will be used to calculate Base rate
• Under this, components of BR includes

• cost of funds, negative carry on CRR/SLR, un-allocable overhead costs & average return on net worth

• The objective is to make BR more sensitive to any changes in policy rates of the RBI
• The new methodology is expected to come into effect from 1 April 2016

8.

Union Civil Aviation Ministry launched GAGAN System

• GAGAN stands for GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation
• It is an inter-operable Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS)
• India is the fourth nation after the US, Europe and Japan to have SBAS
• GAGAN is the first SBAS system in the world to serve the equatorial region

9.

Nitish Kumar sworn-in as Bihar Chief Minister

• The JDU leader was sworn-in as Chief Minister for the fifth time
• Governor Ramnath Kovind administered the oath of office and secrecy
• The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna
• Council of ministers belonging to RJD, JD(U) and Congress parties also took the oath

10

Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet won the Nobel Peace Prize 2015

• It was announced by Kaci Kullman Five, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
• Awarded for its decisive contribution to building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia
• They played the crucial role post-Jasmine revolution in 2011
• The Quartet was picked from the pool of 273 nominees