Current Affairs Daily Digest – July 14′ 2017

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  1. Vijaya Bank MD gets Skoch Award

Kishore Sansi, Managing Director and CEO of Vijaya Bank, has been conferred the ‘Personality of the Year’ award by Skoch Consultancy Services.

The award is part of the ‘Skoch Banking and Financial Leadership’ series. Past recipients of the award include C Rangarajan, Dilip Parekh and Nandan Nilekani.

  1. Ramdev’s Patanjali, RJio among top 10 most influential brands: Study

Yoga guru Ramdev promoted Patanjali Ayurveda has been featured among the top 10 most influential brand in India along with electronic major Samsung and new entrant Reliance Jio, according to a study by the global research firm Ipsos.

Besides, Google has been ranked at the top slot while Microsoft and Facebook were ranked at number two and three, respectively.

Home grown Patanjali and Mukesh Ambani’s controlled Reliance Jio have bagged the fourth and ninth position, respectively, Ipsos said in its report of most influential brands.

  1. Sandeep Patil named brand ambassador of indoor cricket team

Former Indian batsman Sandeep Patil was named as the brand ambassador of the Indian Indoor Cricket Team.

Patil, a member of the 1983 World Cup-winning squad, will be the face of the team in the lead-up to the 10th edition of the World Indoor Cricket Federation (WICF) World Cup, to be held from September 16-23 at the Insportz Club in Dubai.

  1. Tata Sons appoints Aarthi Subramanian as Chief Digital Officer

Tata Sons, the holding company of salt-to-software Tata Group has appointed Aarthi Subramanian as the group’s Chief Digital Officer.

Subramanian, who is currently the Executive Director at Tata Consultancy Services will report to Chairman of Tata Sons N Chandrasekaran and will take up her new role in August this year.

  1. DIPP to set up India’s first TISC in Punjab

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, signed an Institutional agreement with the Punjab State Council of Science and Technology in New Delhi  to establish India’s first Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) at Patent Information Centre, Punjab, under the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) TISC program.

The objective of the TISC is to stimulate a dynamic, vibrant and balanced Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) system in India to foster creativity and innovation, thereby promoting entrepreneurship and enhancing social, economic and cultural development by establishing a network of TISCs in India.

  1. NGT to impose Rs 50,000 fine for dumping waste in Ganga river

In a landmark order aimed at cleaning up and rejuvenating the Ganga, considered a holy river by millions of Indians, the National Green Tribunal (NGT)  banned all construction within 100 metres of the river’s edge from Haridwar in Uttarakhand to Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.

This ban will remain in place until authorities complete the demarcation of the Ganga’s floodplains and identify all permissible and non-permissible activities.

  1. The country is set to get its first high-speed rail training centre at Gandhinagar

The centre will provide for advanced training modules on cutting edge technologies.

The construction will begin shortly after the foundation-laying ceremony is held in September,

Being constructed over railway land measuring 4,400 metres at an estimated cost of Rs 600 crore, the training centre will have a sample track fitted with the overhead electrical systems to enable testing of bullet trains that will run on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route.

  1. Maharashtra first state to have law against social boycott

With the President of India giving assent to the Maharashtra Prohibition of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2016, Maharashtra has become the first state in the country to bring a law making social boycott a crime.

The movement, initiated by late Narendra Dabholkar, gained momentum after he was shot dead and the Maharashtra legislature passed the law unanimously in 2016.

Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) executive president Avinash Patil said the President has signed the law following which the state published it in the gazette.

  1. Green tribunal declares area near Ganga as ‘No-Development Zone’

An area of 100 metres from the edge of the Ganga between Haridwar and Unnao has been declared a “No Development Zone”, with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) prohibiting dumping of waste within 500 metres of the river.

An environment compensation of Rs.50,000 will be imposed on anyone dumping waste in the river.

The NGT also directed the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments to formulate guidelines for religious activities on the ghats of the Ganga and its tributaries.

  1. Varanasi to have an international center for research on rice varieties

The Union Cabinet – country’s highest decision making body has approved setting up International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), South Asia Regional Center (ISARC) in Varanasi which will work on developing high-yielding rice varieties.

The Center will be established at existing campus of the National Seed Research and Training Center in the holy city of eastern India within six months.

A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) will soon be signed for setting up the Center between the country’s agriculture ministry and the IRRI, Philippines.

  1. Naidu launches revamped NHB RESIDEX

Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Venkaiah Naidu has released the new version of NHB RESIDEX.

The revamped and expanded online user-friendly NHB RESIDEX captures upward and downward movements in the prices of residential real estate prices revealed that prices during January-March 2017 have increased over that of October-December 2016, in about half of the cities covered under the survey while the other half have either registered a decline or remained the same.

  1. Govt launches plan to eliminate malaria by 2027

The government launched a national strategic plan for the elimination of malaria and pledged to eradicate the vector-borne disease by 2027.

The strategic plan gives year-wise elimination targets in various parts of the country depending upon the endemicity of malaria in the next five years.

The salient features of the NSP include containment of breeding, strengthening malaria surveillance, establishing a mechanism for early detection and prevention of outbreaks of malaria, promoting the prevention of malaria by the use of Long Lasting Impregnated Nets (LLINs).

  1. Raipur Airport Ranked First in Customer Satisfaction Index Survey

Raipur’s Swami Vivekananda Airport was once again ranked first in Customer Satisfaction among 49 airports in the country.

Raipur Airport achieved 4.84 score on a five point scale index in the latest CSI survey conducted by an independent agency for the period of January-June 2017,  followed by Udaipur, Amritsar and Dehradun airports which have scored 4.75, 4.74 and 4.73 respectively.

  1. Defence Minister Releases a Book on Historic 2800 Kms Expedition – ‘Ganga Avahan’

The Defence Minister Shri Arun Jaitley released a Coffee Table Book titled ‘Ganga Avahan – The Epic Tale of a Historic Swim’.

The ‘Ganga Avahan’ was a pioneering and historic exploratory open-water swim expedition on the Ganga River.

This was the first ever human effort to swim down the entire stretch of the river and also the longest ever social campaign undertaken through an adventure sporting activity for the Swachh Bharat National Mission, Clean Ganga project and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative.

  1. SEBI’s new regulations to allow trusteeship in govt-guaranteed debentures

Markets regulator SEBI has put in place new regulations for debenture trustees, wherein an entity will not be prohibited from acting as a trustee if the government provides guarantees for the debenture issued.

The norms comes following recommendations of a SEBI- appointed task force that examined the “challenges in performing the obligations and duties as Debenture Trustees (DTs) to protect the interests of the debenture holders”.

  1. Google acquires Bangalore-based AI startup Halli Labs

Google has acquired Bangalore-based Halli Labs, which focuses on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Halli Labs will be joining Google’s Next Billion Users team, which is primarily focused on mobile and aims to address issues such as low bandwidth & intermittent connectivity, conserving data usage, reducing battery consumption, developing multi-device content, supporting more digital payments systems, and creating localised content among others.

  1. Indian astronomers discover supercluster of galaxies, name it ‘Saraswati’

In a significant discovery, a team of Indian astronomers have identified a previously unknown, extremely large supercluster of galaxies located in the direction of constellation Pisces.

The supercluster of 43 galaxies, which they named “Saraswati”, is one of the largest known structures in the nearby universe, and is 4 billion light years away from us and may contain the mass equivalent of over 20 million billion suns.

  1. Indo-Sri Lankan Joint Exercise

The IAF has recently participated in a joint exercise with Sri Lankan forces. A transport aircraft of IAF had ferried a contingent of 65 members of IAF personnel on 09 Jul 17 to Sri Lanka with an aim of carrying out joint training.

 The contingent included a sky diving team along with the Air Warrior Drill Team. While at Colombo, joint para drops were carried out along with Sri Lankan troops.

The Air Warrior Drill Team also displayed its immaculate coordinated weapons drill at Colombo.

 

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