Current Affairs Today: June 25 2015

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Indian Affairs 

• India among top 10 FDI recipients
• Govt. nod for revised cost estimate of freight corridor
• Housing For All By 2022 Scheme
• Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) – Scheme
• Smart Cities Scheme – Overview

PM launches smart cities, AMRUT, housing for all by 2022 schemes

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Smart Cities, AMRUT and Housing for All By 2022 in Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
• He said,” The country will now look to public private partnership model and innovative ways of financing to make these schemes successful”.

The funds allocated for these schemes are:

• Smart Cities – Rs 48000 crore
• AMRUT – Rs 50000 crore
• Housing for All by 2022 – Rs 14000 crore

Union Cabinet approved setting up of six Indian Institutes of Management (IIM)

• The Union Cabinet on 24 June 2015 approved setting up of six new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in the country. The cabinet meet was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• These new IIMs will be located at Amritsar (Punjab), Bodh Gaya (Bihar), Nagpur (Maharashtra), Sambalpur (Odisha), Sirmaur (Himachal Pradesh) and Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).
• These IIMs are intended to commence their first academic session from 2015-16. Each Institute will start with an intake of 140 students in the Post Graduate Programme (PGP) courses.

 I-T refunds will soon be redited into your accounts

• The Income Tax department has decided to begin a process that will see the refund due to an individual directly transferred to a bank account of his/her choosing as soon as the sum is processed. This move is done to simplify the income tax refund process and reduce errors.
• The IT department is looking to replace current method of refunds via cheques by banking services.

India pledges $1 billion to quake-hit Nepal

• India has promised assistance of $1 billion to earthquake-hit Nepal for its huge reconstruction programme.
• This announcement was made by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at the Donors’ Conference in Kathmandu. She said the developmental assistance of another one billion US dollars over the next five years.

India ranks number one in embracing automation: Thornton

• According to a survey by Grant Thornton India is number one in terms of embracing automation. 83% of companies are either using automation practices or may do so in a year.
• The companies are switching to automation for lower costs, greater accuracy and increased flexibility to increase or decrease production.

International

Breakthrough in treating leucoderma

• Leucoderma is a condition in which the skin loses its pigmentation or colour. As a result, people with skin disorder have white patches on the skin. In an advanced stage, most of the body skin can lose its pigmentation.
• Researchers from Yale University have found treatment for leucoderma. In the treatment the patient experienced partial repigmentation on her face, arms, and hands within two months. The white spots on her face and hands had completely disappeared after five months and no adverse side effects were observed.

Simplilearn acquires US-based Market Motive for $10 mn

• Simplilearn, a Bengaluru-based start-up has acquired US based digital marketing training company Market Motive in a $10-million deal.
• Market Motive founded in 2007 builds curriculum that trains professionals on digital marketing.

Bobby Jindal becomes the first Indian-American to run for president of US

• Bobby ‘Piyush’ Jindal, the governor of the state of Louisiana, USA has announced that he is joining the presidential race, becoming the 13th Republican to do so this election cycle. He is also the first Indian-American ever to run for president of US.  He was earlier the second Indian American ever to get elected for Congress.
• Though Bobby Jindal was born to immigrants from Punjab, India, he does not embrace his cultural roots. In fact he converted his religion to Christianity from Hinduism. That might probably be the reason for lack of cheer among Indian-Americans even though running for the post of president of USA is a great achievement.  After announcing his campaign, the twitter hashtag #BobbyJindalisSoWhite began trending on Twitter.

US spied on FRENCH presidents: Wikileaks

• Documents released by WikiLeaks shows that the U.S. National Security Agency eavesdropped on the last three French presidents. The recent expose’ of U.S. spy programmes demonstrated that USA had been using the digital spying agency to intercept the conversations of allied politicians
• Previously the documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed in 2013 that the NSA had been eavesdropping on the cellphone of Angela Merkel.
• The spying revelations have caused diplomatic embarrassment for the Americans and seemed to strain relations with other nations, including Brazil and Germany. Now these new revelations might affect relations with France.
• Mr. Obama had earlier ordered a halt to spying on the leaders of allied countries, if not their aides. The French government has termed the present revelation that US is spying on its allies as unacceptable.

Acquisitions & Mergers

Bharti Enterprises buys minority stake in OneWeb

• Bharti Enterprises has acquired a strategic minority stake in a global consortium initiative One Web aimed at providing affordable internet access to all.
• The aim of One Web is to build is to build a communication network with an initial constellation of 648 Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide connectivity to billions of people around the world.

Appointments 

SBI appoints Anshula Kant as CFO

• State Bank of India has appointed Anshula Kant as Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Managing Director. She will take place of P K Gupta. She joined SBI as PO in 1983 and worked under various departments.

Awards & Recognition

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to Receive Colombia’s Highest Civilian Award

• The founder of Art of Living foundation  and spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will receive Columbia’s highest civilian award for hiscontribution in spreading the message of peace in society, inter-mediation in war, reducing stress and combating violence through yoga and breathing exercises.

Sahitya Akademi announced Bal Sahitya Puraskar for the year 2015

• The Sahitya Akademi announced the Bal Sahitya Puraskar for this year, in which five novelists, four writers of short stories, and three authors of poetries have been awarded for their contribution to children’s literature.
• The award consists Rs 50,000 and a casket containing an inscribed copper plaque and a citation.

Science & Technology

Undo your sent mail on GMAIL: new feature

• Bringing relief to people who regret sending emails to unintended recipients or sending the wrong emails to the right recipients, Google has added a new feature to its GMAIL service.
• From now, this feature gives you the option to take back a message you just sent. But, we have to note that, the time limit to ‘undo’ a mail is very limited-a maximum of 30 seconds. To give you time to undo, Gmail delays sending the message for a few seconds. So if you don’t select “Undo” within the time limit, your message will be sent.
• To unable the ‘undo’, go to settings and click ‘Enable’ “Undo Send”. Set the cancellation period (the amount of time you have to decide if you want to unsend an email). And click save changes at the bottom of the page.

Sports

• India-Bangladesh Cricket series

Tendulkar voted best Test player of 21st century

• India’s batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has been voted the ‘Best Test player’ of the 21st century in an online poll conducted by Cricket Australia’s website.
• Kumar Sangakara of Sri Lanka received second highest votes followed by Australia’s Adam Gilchrist in the third position.
  

R Ashwin breaks into top 10 of ODI bowlers’ rankings

• Ravichandran Ashwin enters into the list of top 10 bowlers in ODI. The off-spinner took 6 wickets in three matches against Bangladesh. Ashwin has jumped two places to reach 10^th spot in the list.

Zaheer Abbas confirmed as ICC president

• Former Captain of Pakistan cricket team, Zaheer Abbas has been appointed as the ICC President. He is appointed for one year term.
• Zaheer Abbas has played 78 Tests and 62 ODIs from 1969 to 1985, in which he scored 5,062 and 2,572 runs respectively. He also played in the 1975, 1979 and 1983 ICC Cricket World Cups and captained Pakistan in 14 Tests and 13 ODIs.

Inderjeet Singh, Jinson Johnson won gold at Asian Athletics Grand Prix

• Inderjit Singh and Jinson Johnson of India bagged gold at the first leg of the Asian Athletics Grand Prix in Bangkok, Thailand.
• Inderjit won the gold in Shot Put by throwing 19.83 meters while Johnson won the gold in 800 meter event with a time of 1:48.52.
• This was Inderjeet’s second gold in an international event in June 2015, having won the shot put event at the Asian Championships in Wuhan, China on 3 June 2015.

Important Days

United Nations Public Service Day – June 23 

• The UN Public Service Day intends to celebrate the value and virtue of public service to the community; highlight the contribution of public service in the development process; recognize the work of public servants, and encourage young people to pursue careers in the public sector.

International Widows’ Day – June 23

• International Widows’ Day was introduced to address poverty and injustice faced by widows and their children in many countries.
• It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2010 and is observed annually on June 23.

Day of the Seafarer – June 25

• On June 25, we celebrate the fifth edition of the Day of the Seafarer.
• This day was instituted by the International Maritime Organization to remember the importance of seafarers for our world. The Day of the Seafarer provides a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness about life at sea, but also engage and grow our support base for seafarers’ welfare.
• This year’s theme is “A Career At Sea” and it aims to address the predicted shortage of seafarers in the future by promoting and highlighting the positive benefits of choosing a career at sea.