Current Affairs Today – August 13 2015

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Indian Affairs

• Union Cabinet approves MoU between India, Nepal for construction of petroleum pipeline
• CCEA approves proposal for strengthening drug regulatory system
• Indian Railways ink 4 MoUs with Union Power

Maharashtra Gov forms Cabinet sub-committee to tackle drought crisis

• By observing the Marathwada grim drought situation,Maharashtra government set up a cabinet sub-committee headed by Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse empowered to monitor the water scarcity situation and to prepare an action plan to tackle the crisis.
• The committee also comprising of water supply Minister Babanrao Lonikar, Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde and finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar.
• Beed, Osmanabad and Latur in Marathwada region are facing the worst crisis.
• The state has received an average of 61 percent rain. There is 44 percent water storage, out of which in Marathwada there is only seven per cent and 87 percent area has been covered by sowing.
• Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse said that they discussed if drinking water can be transported through railway from the Ujani dam.

Union Cabinet approves Spectrum Sharing Guidelines

Indian cabinet  approved the much-awaited spectrum sharing guidelines, which are expected to address the issue of mobile phone call drops and the quality of services as also optimise the use of radio frequency spectrum for telecom services.

• The TRAI  had sent its recommendations on sharing of airwaves to the Telecom Commission. While this was welcomed by the operators, they did not appreciate the idea of a fee proposed on such sharing.
• Spectrum sharing would be allowed only for the access service providers in the first instance in a Licensed Service Area (LSA), where both the licensees are having spectrum in the same band.
• Further, spectrum holding of any licensee post-sharing shall be counted after adding 50 percent of the spectrum held by the other licensee in the band being shared, being added as additional spectrum to the original spectrum, held by the licensee in the band, the statement said.
• Guided by the principle of “ease of doing business“, the cabinet also decided that both licensees sharing the spectrum shall jointly give a prior intimation for sharing the right to use the spectrum at least 45 days before the proposed effective date of the sharing.
• A processing fee, of Rs.50,000, which could be modified from time to time, shall be payable individually by each licensee for each service area at the time of intimation
• A licensee shall not be eligible to share its spectrum, if it has been established that it is in breach of terms and conditions of the licence, and the licensor has ordered for revocation or termination of its licence.

Government approves Soft loan scheme to sugar mills

• To further infuse liquidity into the sugar industry and facilitate clearing of cane dues arrears, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved a soft loan scheme to the extent of Rs. 6000 crore for the current sugar season.
• The CCEA has further mandated that banks pass on the financial assistance directly to the cane growers after obtaining the list from the mills.
• Furthermore, in order to incentivize mills to clear their dues expeditiously, the government had earlier mandated that soft loans will be provided to only those units which have cleared at least 50 percent of their outstanding arrears by 30.6.2015.
• The Government has provided one year moratorium on this loan, and will bear the interest subvention cost to the extent of Rs. 600 crore for the said period.

Gov sanctioned 1,500-MW ultra mega solar power park for Andhra Pradesh

• The Ministry for New and Renewable Energy sanctioned a 1,500-MW ultra mega solar power park for Andhra Pradesh.
• The 1,500 MW ultra mega solar park will be developed in Kadapa district by NTPC, which will the third mega park of over 1,000 MW to be taken up by the state.
• Earlier two mega parks of 1,000 MW each were executed by NTPC at Anantapur and Kurnool districts, respectively. Part from the above projects the state utility Andhra Pradesh Genco has approved a move to set up a 500 MW (250×2) solar park in Anantapur.

International Affairs

•  China, Pakistan sign deals to beef up CPEC project
•  Govt approves MoU between India and America to establish PACE setter Fund

Business

 Uninor signed worth Rs 1,200 cr contract with Huawei

Uninor, which is a Norwegian telecom major Telenor,which has a unit in India  has awarded a contract worth Rs 1,200 crore to Chinese firm Huawei  to modernise and manage its network across six circles in India within a three-year time frame.

• While this  project it will  enable the company to make its network 4G.
• Huawei India will modernise Uninor’s entire telecom network across six telecom circles with 24,000 base stations.
• Present , Uninor operates in the circles of UP (West), UP (East), Bihar (including Jharkhand), Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. It will soon start operations in the Assam circle.
• Huawei will also become the managed services partner of Uninor. This is the largest deal of its kind in the Indian telecom industry and also within the Telenor Group.
• This project will start this year with modernisation of 5,000 mobile tower sites. The remaining 19,000 sites will be modernised in 2016. By 2017, we will move completely to IP (internet protocol) network and will be ready to embrace big data era.
• Uninor will also install small mobile sites closer to customers to reduce gap in its network coverage.This  company has about 40 million mobile customers in India, out of which 26 percent are active internet users.
• By the end  of the project, Uninor expects to reduce carbon emission from its network in India by 30 percent.

Hero Cycles acquires majority stake in UK’s Avocet Sports 

• Hero Cycles today picked up majority stake in UK-based Avocet Sports, its first overseas acquisition, to mark entry into high-end bicycle market in Europe for an undisclosed sum.
• “This acquisition marks our entry into the European market and plays an important role in realising our ambition of becoming one of its key players,” Hero Cycles Chairman and MD Pankaj Munjal said in a statement.

Banking & Finance

• SBI, associate banks top customer complaint chart in Kerala

Appointments & Resigns

• Sudhakar Shetty elected as President of Gymnastics Federation of India

Rajeev Shahare appointed as the Ambassador of India to Denmark

• Rajeev Shahare appointed as the Ambassador of India to Denmark.Mr. Rajeev Shahare an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1986 batch has been appointed as the country’s next Ambassador to Denmark.
• Rajeev Shahare, presently High Commissioner of India to the Maldives.
• His prior diplomatic assignments also include Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Mauritius.
• He will be replacing Niraj Srivastava shortly.

Mafatlal industries appoints Aniruddha Deshmukh as it’s CEO

Mafatlal Industries has appointed Aniruddha Deshmukh as its company new chief executive (CEO) and managing director.

• Mafatlal Industries is headquatered in Mumbai.
• Before  Anirudh  was President of textiles division at Raymond Limited.
• From August 13, 2015, Deshmukh will take position of CEO of Mafatlal industries.
• Mafatlal which is   domestic textile and apparel industry in India is estimated to reach $ 100 billion by 2017 from $ 67 billion in 2014.
• Before  the company’s former MD and CEO, Rajiv Dayal had decided to opt for pre-mature retirement and company had appointed Deshmukh as company’s chief operating officer (COO).

Jethabhai Patel re-elected as Amul Chairman

The chief of Sabar Dairy, Jethabhai Patel, was  re-elected as the chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), for another three-year term.

• The GCMMF is the largest milk and milk products marketing organisation in the country with annual sales turnover of Rs 21,000 crore. It markets a wide range of milk and milk products under the brand name Amul and Sagar.
• GCMMF, popularly known as Amul, is Asia’s largest dairy cooperative marketing body, which clocked an annual turnover of Rs 20,733 crore during 2014-15.
• The union of GCMMF produces  an average of 15 lakh litres of milk per day within Gujarat and outside and it has dairy plants in Sabarkantha District and one dairy plant at Rohtak, Haryana with processing capacity of 10 lakh litres per day.
• GCMMF is India’s largest food products marketing organisation with annual turnover of Rs 18, 143 crore during year 2013-14. It markets a wide range of milk and milk products under the brand name “Amul” and “Sagar”.
• Member unions of GCMMF are procuring on an average of 132 lakh litres of milk everyday from 33 lakh milk producers from more than 17,000 villages of the state.

Jayant Patel appointed as acting Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court

• Justice Jayant Patel has been appointed as acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court.
• Patel replaced V M Sahai who retired as chief justice today after reaching the age of superannuation.
• Justice Patel (59), who hails from Veraval town in Junagadh district, graduated in commerce and law from M S University and started practising law in 1979.

Awards

Martha Bhaskar Rao received ‘Vaidya Ratna’ award

• Martha Bhaskar Rao, an Ayurvedic surgeon of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams-run Sri Venkateswara Ayurvedic College, Tirupati, has received ‘Vaidya Ratna’ award at a function organised recently by Suman Art Theatres in Hyderabad.
• Rao has performed over 10,000 surgeries pertaining to piles and fistula using the time-tested ‘Ksharasutra’ method and his recent book ‘Recent advances in Ksharasutra in high anal fistula’ has also been made a referral text book.

IISc Professor Ajay Sood becomes Royal Society Fellow

• Professor Ajay Sood from the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has been elected as the fellow of  prestigious Royal Society.
• Prof Sood is India’s leading experimental physicist working in the field of  Quantum Condensed Matter with focus on nanomaterials since 35 years. He is presently a faculty at the Department of Physics, IISc.
• Sood  and his team have designed Field Effect Transistors (FETs) using materials like carbon nanotubes, graphene, Molybdenum disulphide and black phosphorus and superconductors such as iron pnictides.

Environment

•  India lost 41 tigers in 7 months: NTCA & Traffic India Data

Sports

• Complete list of athletes recommended for Arjuna Award 2015

Kabaddi is going to be big in Poland by 2016

• Accroding to polishkabbadi player Michael Spiczko, who is a member of bengaluru bulls team, by next year this kabbadi would become a huge rage in his country Poland because of the game’s ever-growing popularity.
• By 2016, kabaddi will be a huge thing in Poland. There is a growing number of fans and people, want’s  to play kabaddi.
• Spiczko said kabaddi is at its nascent stage in Poland, but is becoming bigger and bigger each day. Kabaddi is an interesting sport because it is a team sport and a contact sport, and the Polish people like such sports

Pankaj Advani Wins the World 6-Red Snooker Championship

India’s Pankaj Advani won his ninth world title by winning  the IBSF 6 Reds World Championship snooker crown in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt by defeating  Kacper Filipiak of Poland 6-1 in the final.

 About Pankaj Advani:

• Pankaj Arjan Advani born on  24 July 1985 in Pune is an Indian professional player of English billiards and former professional snooker
• Advani spent his initial years in Kuwaitbefore moving to Bangalore  He received his education at the Frank Anthony Public School  Bangalore and completed his Bachelor’s degree in Commerce fromMahaveer Jain College Bangalore. He received training in snooker from former national Snooker champion Arvind Savur.
• He won his first ever title at the age of 12 and went on to set several records at the state and national levels. In the year 2000 he won his first Indian Junior Billiards Championship title and then went on to win it again in 2001 and 2003. In 2003 he won the India Junior Snooker Championship which made him the youngest National Snooker champion.
• In recognition of his achievements, the Government of Indiahas bestowed several awards upon Advani,Arjuna Award in 2004, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2006, and Padma Shri  in 2009.

Srikanth, Prannoy wins in World Championship

• SrikanthWorld No. 3 Indian badminton player defeated Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen Hao 21-14 21-15. Srikanth will take on Hu Yun of Hong Kong, against whom the Hyderabadi has a 2-0 record.
• Prannoy Haseena Sunil Kumaralso known as HS Prannoy World No.12 Indian badminton player defeated Uganda’s Ekiring Edwin 21-14 21-19. Prannoy have a tough task ahead as he faces Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen. The world No. 7 has beaten Prannoy twice in the last two meetings.
• World Badminton Championship winners will be crowned as the “World Champions” and awarded gold medals but it does not offer any prize money.
• The tournament started in 1977 and the tournament will not be held once every four years to give way to the Olympic Games.

Lahiri wins Long Drive at Whistling Straits

• Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri won the star-studded Long Drive Competition at the Whistling Straits in the traditional event preceding the PGA Championships, the fourth and final Major of the year.
• Lahiri, 28, winner of the Malaysian Open and Hero Indian Open, which catapulted him into the Top-50 of the world — he is now No. 53 in the rankings.

Click here to view: Current Affairs August 2015