April 09 & 10 – Current Affairs Quick Gyan

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Quick Gyan (QG) Section of D2G. QG is just a glimpse of what happened today all over the world.

Only For Serious Candidates : We strongly recommend you to read the Current Affairs in detail. For your convenience, we have provided quick links under the updates. Make use of it.

Always Keep Yourself Updated!!!

APPOINTMENTS

CP Gurnani appointed chairman of Nasscom

National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has announced the appointment of CP Gurnani as its chairman for 2016-17. He will take the new role as chairman of Nasscom. He will succeeds B V R Mohan Reddy, who served as chairman of Nasscom for the previous finacial year.

  • Gurnani is part of Nasscom’s Executive Council and is the managing director and chief executive officer of Tech Mahindra.
  • As chairman of the Executive Council he will lead and assist Nasscom in catalysing the growth of the Indian technology and services industry and enabling the fulfillment of its future goals and aspirations.
  • CP was chosen as the Ernst and Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year [Manager]’, CNBC Asia’s ‘India Business Leader of the Year’ and Dataquest ‘IT person of the Year’ – for the year 2013.
  • CP has also won the ‘CEO of the Year’ Award for year 2014 declared by Business Standard.

Quick Link – CP Gurnani as Chairman of Nasscom

GOI signs up Tendulkar to endrose Skill India

Government has roped in cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar to endorse the ‘I Support Skill India‘ campaign, in an attempt to reach out to the youth and build awareness on the importance of skill development. The campaign of the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship (MSDE) is an endeavour to galvanize stakeholders across states, organizations and industries to bring value and respect to skills and standardize the ecosystem to meet human resource requirements nationally and globally.

The ministry’s target is to skill 40.2 crore youth by 2022. It has also introduced its flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), the world’s largest monetary reward scheme promoting skill development to those who need financial support.

Quick Link – Sachin as endrose Skill India

INDIAN AFFAIRS

Maharashtra to pull all major public services online

Targeting to make all public services online so that a citizen does not have to visit a government office at all, Maharashtra will be launching a mobile application and digit

al payment gateway by the end of the year to facilitate this. The initiative was announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

  • The aim is to have all the services online so that a citizen is not forced to visit a government office at all.
  • The company named Exuberant  has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Maharashtra government to invest Rs 200 crore in the facility, which will create 500 new jobs by the end of fiscal 2017-18.

Quick Link – Major public services online

Met Department to start India’s first heat index

As several parts of the country experience heatwaves, and with summer temperatures steadily on the rise, India is set to get its own heat index. Starting this month, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for the first time will introduce a heat index for the country. The index will be available on the IMD website, and will be updated every three hours across all weather stations. A heat index – a measure of how hot it really feels – is calculated based on actual temperatures and relative humidity levels. The index will give citizens accurate and updated information on the heat conditions specific to their areas.

  • For instance, a heat index between 40 and 54 with humidity levels less than 70% and more than 70% is termed is ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘uncomfortable sultry’.
  • With yellow and orange as warning colour codes respectively, the health hazards read “heat cramps and heat exhaustion likely”.
  • Similarly, a green colour code with a heat index less than 40 is ‘comfortable’ with no health hazards, while a heat index of more than 54 means ‘highly uncomfortable hot’ (orange) and ‘highly uncomfortable sultry’ (red) indicating a likelihood of heat stroke or sun stroke.

Quick Link – India’s first heat index

GOI constitutes BB Tandon Committee to monitor Govt Advertisements

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has constituted a three-member panel, headed by former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) BB Tandon, to see that guidelines set for government advertisements by the Supreme Court are followed. Senior TV journalist Rajat Sharma and ad-man Piyush Pandey will be the other members of the committee.

In an order delivered in May 2015, the Supreme Court had laid down norms for government advertisements. The apex court had also directed the central government to constitute a three-member committee “consisting of persons with unimpeachable neutrality and impartiality” to regulate the issue of public advertisements.

In its May 2015 order, the Supreme Court had criticised “personality cult” terming it as an anti-thesis of democracy and barred publication of photos of leaders in government advertisements except those of the President, Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India.

Quick Link – BB Tandon Committee

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

China offers Sri Lanka 500 Million Yuan

China has offered Sri Lanka 500 million Yuan to provide assistance to improve investment zones and speed up the industrialization process in the country. China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang made this offer during bilateral discussions with the visiting Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Beijing.

  • The Prime Minister said that Sri Lanka will adhere to the “One China” policy in the future.
  • The Prime Minister also said that Sri Lanka will give its fullest support to China’s ‘one belt one road’ concept, reports Lanka  page website.
  • During the discussions the Chinese Premier expressed his wishes that both sides will speed up the negotiation of the second phase of Hambantota port project, helping Sri Lanka to be an important transfer hub in international logistics.
  • The Chinese Premier welcomed the resuming of the Colombo port construction and said China is willing to join hands with Sri Lanka to steadily expand the construction of the project.

Quick Link – China offers Sri Lanka

Saudi Arabia and Egypt to build bridge over the Red Sea

Saudi Arabia’s king has announced that a bridge linking the country to Egypt will be built over the Red SeaKing Salman said that the bridge would boost commerce between the two allies.

  • Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have supported Egypt with billions of dollars since President Sisi took power in 2013 following mass street protests. 
  • Saudi Arabia regards Egypt as a crucial partner in efforts to build a bloc of friendly Sunni Muslim states as a bulwark against growing regional influence of Shia-led Iran.
  • Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi said the bridge would be named after the Saudi king.
  • A Red Sea bridge linking the two countries has been proposed several times before but has failed to become a reality.

Quick Link – S Arabia and Egypt over the Red Sea

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launches inflatable room to ISS

The US aerospace company SpaceX has successfully landed a resusable rocket on an ocean platform, after four previous attempts failed. Mission controllers cheered as the Falcon 9 rocket remained upright on the platform off Florida. It was returning from delivering an inflatable habitat into space for Nasa. The inflatable room will attach to the International Space Station (ISS) for a two-year test and become the first such habitat for humans in orbit. Built by Nevada company Bigelow Aerospace, the habitat is intended to pave the way towards the use of such rooms for long space trips, including to Mars.

  • SpaceX is seeking to kick off a new era of reusable rockets and affordable private space travel.
  • Bigelow Aerospace, the project of real estate billionaire Robert Bigelow, launched prototype expandable habitats before but none have been occupied by humans.
  • Reusable rockets could revolutionize spaceflight by making costly launches more affordable, especially for public space agencies like NASA. This success may also help usher in a new era of space tourism for civilians.

Quick Link – SpaceX

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

Future Group acquires FabFurnish

Retail giant Future Group has confirmed acquisition of online furniture store FabFurnish. This is the first online acquisition that the Kishore Biyani-led group has made.

  • Future Group already has its finger in the home and furnishing business with the HomeTown brand of stores and seems to be taking a step towards an offline-online model.
  • FabFurnish, which earlier sold private labels besides promoting merchants on its platform, became a full-fledged marketplace late last year.
  • The company also fired almost one-fourth of its workforce.
  • Despite an early start in the online furnishing business, FabFurnish succumbed to competition from Pepperfry and Urban Ladder that recently saw funding rounds led by Goldman Sachs and Sequoia Capital respectively.

Quick Link – FabFurnish

OBITUARY

Former Union Minister C Silvera passes away

Former Union Minister C Silvera died due to massive stroke. Silvera (81) collpased in the bathroom and died on the spot. He is survived by his wife Lallawmzuali and three sons. Silvera was born on May 6, 1935 and earned his MBBS degree from Christian Medical College in Vellore. He worked as medical officer under the Baptist Church of Mizoram before joining politics. He was elected to Rajya Sabha in 1985 and to ninth, tenth and eleventh Lok Sabha. He was inducted as union minister of state for health and family welfare on February 17, 1994 and afterwards was allotted industry portfolio. Silvera was the first and and so far the only Mizo to be in the union council of ministers.

Quick Link – C Silvera passes away


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