Current Affair 13 March 2016 for Competition Exams

India signed MOU with IMF to setup regional training centre.
India and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have a signed a pact to set up South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC) in New Delhi. The aim of this Center is to train officials in dealing with macro-economic and financial issues.
The training centre will help address existing training requirements and respond to demand for IMF training in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, while bringing the region’s training volume on par with those of other regions.
MOU was signed between Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

Wikipedia to develop a speech engine for visually impaired users.
Wikipedia has announced that it is collaborating with researchers from Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology to develop an speech engine that will make the online encyclopedia more accessible to the visually impaired.

Plastic degrading bacteria identified.
A team of Japanese researchers has successfully identified a bacterium species capable of breaking down plastic-poly(ethylene terephthalate) or PET. The results were published in the journal Science.
This Bacteria is caled Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6. This bacteria can almost completely degrade a thin film of PET in a short span of six weeks at 30°C.

Project ‘Mausam’ to explore Indian Ocean ‘World’.
Project ‘Mausam’ is the intiative of Ministry of Culture with Archaeological Society of India. It will be extended from East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent and Sri Lanka to the Southeast Asian archipelago.
Aim of this project is to focus on monsoon patterns, cultural routes and maritime landscapes. Project ‘Mausam’ is examining key processes and phenomena that link different parts of the Indian Ocean. It aims to understand how the knowledge and manipulation of the monsoon winds has shaped interactions across the Indian Ocean and led to the spread of shared knowledge systems, traditions, technologies and ideas along maritime routes.

Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015.
This bill promises to protect the interests of the large number of aspiring house buyers. It will protect the interests of consumers and curb the malpractices in the real estate sector.
The bill seeks to create a uniform regulatory mechanism across the country and enhance the growth of construction sector. It also ensures to bring transparency and accountability in the real estate sector to access capital and financial markets essential for its long term growth.The Bill aims to bring about transparency in the real estate sector, thereby encouraging investments by foreign and domestic financial institutions and protecting the interests of home buyers.