Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 24 June 2015

Legendry Titanic musician no more

James Horner, celebrated composer of musical scores for several smash-hit movies, includingTitanic and Avatar , died on Monday in a plane crash at the age of 61, colleagues said.
Hollywood trade magazine Variety reported the composer died when his private aircraft crashed in Santa Barbara, California.
Horner won two Oscars for his work on Titanic — one for its theme song My Heart Will Go On , performed by Celine Dion, and another for the film’s score.
He won Oscar nominations for the musical scores of several other box-office hits, including Apollo 13 , Braveheart and Field of Dreams . His first nomination came in 1986, for the sci-fi horror film Aliens .
Horner’s most recent Oscar nomination was for another sci-fi epic, James Cameron’s 2009 blockbusterAvatar .
With expansive and emotive soundscapes, Horner’s scores carried films to their climax and accompanied top actors as they delivered some of their most moving performances.

The Income Tax Department on Monday notified a new set of income tax return forms for the assessment year 2015-16, and has extended the deadline for the filing of returns to August 31.
With the publication of the Gazette order by the Finance Ministry, taxpayers can now file their returns till August 31. The changes to the forms were made public on May 31, but they were notified only on Monday.
The previous deadline for the filing of returns was July 31, but this was extended because of various changes the government made to the return forms.
In the new and simplified forms, filers no longer have to provide the details of their foreign travels. In addition, they need furnish only details about “total number of savings and current bank accounts” held by them “at any time during the previous year [excluding dormant accounts]”.
The most simplified form, ITR-2A, to be filled by those individuals and HUFs who do not have income from business, profession or by way of capital gains and do not hold foreign assets, only asks for the passport number of the tax-filer, “if available”.

The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) completed its 100th orbit around Mars on Monday. It is also gradually coming out of the blackout it had entered earlier this month, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said.
The payloads on the spacecraft are to be re-started in a few weeks. They were last operated on May 27 to put the spacecraft in an autonomous mode.
MOM remains healthy and all its payloads are performing satisfactorily, ISRO said. The Mars Colour Camera has taken 405 frames so far.

“The spacecraft’s health data is now being received,” ISRO said, and added that the orbiter now had an elliptical orbit of 474 km and 71,132 km from the red planet.
Since early June, the Mars Orbiter Mission and Mars were moving behind the sun as viewed from the earth. Two-way signals were disrupted by solar activities.
Launched from Indian spaceport of Sriharikota on November 5, 2013, MOM reached the red planet in September last year and has outlived its planned mission life of six months in a Martian orbit.

No notice has been issued against controversial former IPL administrator Lalit Modi with regard to alleged foreign exchange violations, the former chief of Interpol said on Monday.
Ronald K. Noble, who served as general secretary of the international police agency from 2000 to 2014, told a television channel that he had known Mr. Modi since 2013.
The channel interviewed Mr. Noble, who had during his tenure been pictured socially with Mr. Modi. Mr. Modi had even referred to him as “my brother Ron Noble”.

In the interview, Mr. Noble said he was not aware of Mr. Modi’s legal troubles and that the Interpol had never received any request from India for assistance in any investigation against Mr. Modi.
The Union government had recently clarified that it had issued a “Light Blue Notice”, which meant legal action when Mr. Modi was on Indian soil.