Current Affairs Today – September 19 2015

Dear Readers, We cover some important news in Current Affairs Today Section, which are not covered in Daily Detailed News, More Current Affairs coverage will help you to Score Good Marks in Competitive Exam.

• Current Affairs September 2015
• Current Affairs September Quiz 2015

Indian Affairs 

• Supreme Court launches portal to track cases pending at district courts
• Indian Railways Develops Hybrid Vacuum Toilets
• Metro Man’ E Sreedharan in UN high level advisory group
• Indian, Chinese firms ink 15 MOUs worth $590 million
• UIDAI shifted to IT Ministry from NITI Aayog
• Delhi, Mumbai among world’s cheapest cities to live in: UBS
• Election Commission releases NOTA symbol for all polls
• PM Modi launches Rs 45,000 crore IPDS scheme to strengthen power distribution
• Delhi will record world’s largest number of premature deaths due to air pollution
• NBCC bags project to build trade centre, crafts museum at Varanasi

India and Lao PDR sign two MoUs on Air Services and Quick Impact Projects

• India and Laos has signed two MoU’s on air services and Quick Impact Projects. These agreements were inked during the visit of our Vice-President Hamid Ansari to Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
• Maykonh Phonephommavong, DG, Department of Irrigation, Lao presented the work completion and handing over certificate of the Champassack Irrigation project  to R K Gupta, Chairman and MD, WAPCOS Limited of India at a ceremony at the Presidential Palace “Ho Kham” of Lao.
• The Vice President also visited That Luang or the Great Stupa, in Vientiane. It is the national symbol of Lao PDR.

About Laos:

• Capital: Vientiane
• Currency: Lao Kip
• President: Choummaly Sayasone
• Prime Minister: Thongsing Thammavong

Manohar Parrikar adopts Barauliya village in Amethi

• Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has adopted Barauliya village in Amethi under Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojna.
• Amethi is the Parliamentary constituency of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
• Manohar Parrikar is also a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh.
• Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani who lost against Rajiv Gandhi in general elections 2014 also visits the constituency frequently.
• She will visit Amethi to distribute 50,000 fruit-bearing trees among the villagers on this month.

International Affairs 

• India, US Create Joint Challenge Coin to Mark Partnership

Appointments & Resigns

P.V. Chandran new President of Indian Newspaper Society

• P.V. Chandran was elected as President of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) for 2015-16 by the annual general meeting of the INS.
• He will succeed Kiran B. Vadodaria of Sambhaav Metro.
• Mr. Chandran is a MD and one of the whole-time directors of Grihalakshmi, a Malayalam magazine that is published by the Mathrubhumi group of publications.
• He was also served as INS Vice-President in 2013-2014 and INS deputy president in 2014-2015.

The other new members are,

• Vice-President – Akila Urankar (Business Standard)
• Deputy President – Somesh Sharma (Rashtradoot Saptahik)
• Honorary Treasurer – Mohit Jain (The Economic Times)
• A 41-member executive committee was also elected in that general meeting of INS.
• INS secretary-general – V. Shankaran.

Amazon India‘s fashion and lifestyle leader quits

• Vikas Purohit, leader of Amazon India‘s fashion and lifestyle category has quit. 
• He has quit on from Amazon.in for some personal reasons.
• Susan Saideman, Vice President for global vendor management, will lead the fashion category in the interim till they identify a new leader for their business.
• Amazon CEO & Founder – Jeff Bezos
• Headquarters of Amazon – Seattle Washington, US

Sunil Duggal new CEO of Hindustan Zinc Limited

• Sunil Duggal, will take in charge of the post of CEO in Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL), the country’s largest zinc producer.
• Sunil Duggal, currently working as a deputy CEO will also become a whole-time-director of Hindustan Zinc.
• Current CEO Akhilesh Joshi set to take over as whole time director and President of Global Zinc Business of Vedanta Group. 
• Headquarters of Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) – Udaipur, Rajasthan

Science & Technology 

FB launches “Signal”, a news gathering tool

• Facebook has unveiled a news gathering tool which is called “Signal” for journalists.
• “Signal” -– a Desktop only for now is available on both Facebook and Facebook owned Instagram and it will be free for journalists.
• This tool will help journalists to source, gather, and embed newsworthy content from Facebook and Instagram.
• Signal can save the image or video of every post of FB and Instagram very easily.
• Facebook has already launched its ‘Mentions’ app that is available to journalists with verified profiles.

Sports

Skeet shooter Mairaj Ahmad Khan clinches 2016 Rio Olympics quota

• The 40-year old, Mairaj Ahmad Khan has clinched a Rio Olympics quota place for India at the ISSF Shotgun World Championship in Lonato, Italy.
• It is India’s first quota place for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in the shotgun category.
• Jitu Rai, Apurvi Chandela, Gagan Narang, Abhinav Bindra, Gurpreet Singh, Prakash Nanjappa and Chain Singh are the other shooters who already booked their quota for the 2016 Olympic games.
• Asian Shooting Championships which will be held in Kuwait city on November will be the next and last chance to secure Olympic quota places for India.

Rahane gets CCI’s honorary life membership

• Cricket Club of India (CCI) conferred honorary life membership on India’s middle-order batsman Ajinkya Rahane in Mumbai.
• Ajinkya Rahane and his wife got membership cards for utilizing all facilities of the club by CCI president Kekoo Nicholson at a brief ceremony at the CCI, 82-year-old private institution.
• CCI will also confer an honorary life membership on India’s top woman tennis professional Sania Mirza after her recent win of the US women’s doubles title with Martina Hingis of Switzerland. CCI have invited Pakistani cricketer Shoiab Malik (Sania’s husband) for the function.

Rohit Sharma Joins Anti-Poaching Campaign in Kenya

Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma joined a anti-poaching campaign to save the wild animals of Africa as he along with Hollywood actors Matt Le Blanc and Salma Hayek will be involved in taking care of the last surviving Northern White Rhinoceros of the rare species.

Obituary

Marathi cricket commentator Bal Pandit passes Away

• Bal Pandit, 86-year old Marathi cricket commentator who served as the secretary of Maharashtra Cricket Association in the mid-1980s was passed away in Pune.
• Mr. Bal Pandit also served as a selector of Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA).
• He had played Ranji Trophy for Maharashtra against Gujarat during the 1959-60. It was the only innings in which he batted and scored 25 runs.
• He has written a number of books in Marathi. Sunil Gavaskar’s ‘Sunny Days’ was translated by Bal Pandit in Marathi language that became popular with the Marathi readers.
• He was honoured by Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Award in 1978 by the Maharashtra government.

Important days

International Red Panda Day – September 19, 2015

• International Red Panda Day observes on September 19 of every year in order to create awareness for the Red Panda.
• The red panda or “firefox” also called lesser panda, red bear-cat and red cat-bear. It is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China.
• The 6th edition of International Red Panda Day aims to raise the awareness and also to recognize the importance of Red Panda.
• The contributions received from International Red Panda Day will support red panda research, conservation, education, and sustainable development work.
• Another one Initiative of this year is “Red Panda Ranger”, a special title given to children who help spread the word about red pandas.