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!!!
AWARDS AND HONORS
Sheryl Sandberg most powerful woman in tech: Forbes
For the fifth consecutive year, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has been named the most powerful woman in technology on the Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women list, placing at No. 7 on the list overall. With a personal fortune of $1.4 billion, Sandberg is powerful not only as a billionaire and top executive at the world’s fifth most valuable brand, but also as a voice for female empowerment in the workplace and shared responsibilities at home.
Quick Link – Most Powerful Women
Four Indians in Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women list
Four Indian women led by Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman of the county’s largest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI), have been ranked in the latest Forbes list of 100 most powerful women in the world. While Bhattacharya has been ranked 25th, others are Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank (40th), Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon (77th), and Shobhana Bhartia of HT Media, which publishes the Hindustan Times (93rd).
The list represents seven categories or power bases: Billionaires, business, finance, media, politics, philanthropists and NGOs, and technology, the magazine said in a statement. Also on the list is the US-based Indian-origin Indra Nooyi, Chief Executive of PepsiCo.
Quick Link – Four Indians Most Powerful Women list
APPOINTMENTS
Facebook appoints Adobe’s Umang Bedi as India MD
Facebook India has named Umang Bedi as its managing director. He will take over from Kirthiga Reddy, who will be returning to the US to take on a new role at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters. Bedi has close to two decades of leadership experience covering sales, marketing and partnerships with multinational companies.
Prior to joining Facebook, he was the managing director, South Asia, at Adobe Inc. He was responsible for making India one of Adobe’s leading markets. Facebook works with more than 85% of the top 100 advertisers in India identified by market research company Kantar. All of them use video within their Facebook campaigns in India.
Quick Link – Umang Bedi as India MD
BANKING AND FINANCE
Govt, ADB sign $120 mn loan agreement for Odisha
India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a USD 120 million loan pact to improve irrigation and water management infrastructure in Odisha. The soft loan is the second tranche of a USD 157.5 million financing facility under the Orissa Integrated Irrigated Agriculture and Water Management Investment Program.
The financing will be used for modernising seven irrigation subprojects resulting in improved irrigation in over 1,00,000 hectares and strengthening of Water User Associations (WUAs) and the institutional capacity of Odisha’s Department of Water Resources.
Quick Link – ADB for Odisha
Amazon announces $3 billion investment in India
Online retail giant Amazon is investing $3 billion into its India operations this year, according to founder Jeff Bezos, who was speaking at the U.S.-India Business Council Annual Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., as a part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s U.S visit. The additional money brings the total investment in Amazon India to $5 billion.
In a statement from the council, Bezos said Amazon India, which launched in 2013, “has already created some 45,000 jobs in India and continue to see huge potential in the Indian economy.” India is home to the most rapidly developing e-commerce market in the world, according to Morgan Stanley, which predicted it would be worth $119 billion by 2020.
Quick Link – Amazon-$3 billion investment
Ratan Tata invests in kids gaming startup MadRat
MadRat Games is an innovative startup with an aim to provide the world a more wholesome, happy and healthy way of living. Founded by IIT Mumbai and Carnegie Mellon alumnus Rajat Dhariwal along with his team Madhumita Halder and Manuj Dhariwal in 2010, the offline product gaming startup will use the proceeds for product development and pre-order campaign. Initially, it built offline educational games such as board games, learning puzzles, toys and mobile games.
Ina fresh turn of events MadRat Games, has raised fresh funds from a consortium of investors including Ratan Tata, Ola’s founders Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Flipkart’s founder Binny Bansal, and Girish Mathrubootham of Freshdesk. The total amount raised by the company comes to over $2.5 million with this funding round.
Quick Link – MadRat
INDIAN AFFAIRS
Kerala targets to be open defecation-free by November
Kerala is all set to become open defecation-free with the state-run Suchitwa Mission aiming to achieve the goal by November 1 this year. State Chief Secretary SM Vijayanand convened a meeting of all stakeholders and higher officials recently to evaluate the progress of the mission. Suchitwa Mission is the state nodal agency for sanitation. It is constituted under the state local self government department with the vision of creating a waste free Kerala with a pollution-free environment, public hygiene and cleanliness.
Quick Link – Suchitwa Mission
India ranked 141 on Global Peace Index
India has been ranked 141 on a Global Peace Index — making it less peaceful than countries like Burundi, Serbia and Burkina Faso — with violence taking a USD 680-billion toll on its economy in 2015. In a ranking of 163 countries, compiled by global think tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), Syria has been named the least peaceful, followed by South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.
On the other hand, Iceland was ranked as the world’s most peaceful country, followed by Denmark and Austria.
Quick Link – Global Peace Index
IRB battalion to be named after Maharana Pratap
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has announced that a new Indian Reserve Battalion in Rajasthan will be named after Maharana Pratap, the great warrior of Mewar region. The Home Minister, who is on a two-day visit to the state, made the announcement at a programme. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had made a request to Singh in this regard.
The Indian Reserve Battalion will be named after Maharana Pratap, a Rajput ruler who had fought against the Mughals and never bowed before them, Singh said. The government will make sure that his contribution is highlighted. The Union minister also announced setting up of a global centre for counter terrorism at Sardar Patel University of Police, Security and Criminal Justice at Jodhpur and said the process of police modernisation will be expedited.
Quick Link – IRB battalion
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Hillary Clinton claims Democratic nomination
Hillary Clinton has cemented her position as the presumptive Democratic nominee, seizing her place in history as the first woman to contest a US presidential election at the head of a major political party. The former Secretary of State cruised to victory in four of the week’s six state primaries including, crucially, California – where her rival, Bernie Sanders, had hoped to fuel his flagging campaign.
When she conceded defeat to Barack Obama at the end of a long and gruelling primary season in 2008, Ms Clinton expressed regret that she had been unable to “shatter that highest and hardest glass ceiling”, the presidential nomination. Reaching for history, Mrs. Clinton pledged to build on the achievements of pioneers like the 19th-century leaders at Seneca Falls, N.Y., who began the fight for women’s rights in America.
Quick Link – Democratic nominee
Mom-to-kid HIV transfer stopped 1st time in Asia
The World Health Organization has announced that Thailand became the first Asian country to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, a milestone in the fight against the disease. The announcement is a boost for a generation of Thai health workers who have transformed the nation from one of Asia’s most HIV-ravaged societies to a pin-up for how to effectively tackle the crisis.
Describing the elimination as a “remarkable achievement”, the WHO said Thailand was “the first (country) with a large HIV epidemic to ensure an AIDS-free generation.” Belarus and Armenia were also declared free of mother-to-baby HIV transmissions. Previously Cuba was the only other country to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission under the WHO’s criteria back in July 2015.
Quick Link – Mom-to-child transmission of HIV stooped
Suzuki Chairman Osamu Suzuki to step down as CEO
Suzuki Motor Corp patriarch Osamu Suzuki is stepping down as chief executive and the Japanese automaker promised to cut executive pay and slash 2015 bonuses, hoping to draw a line under the bruising admission of major flaws in its fuel tests. Executive vice president Osamu Honda, who also served as chief technical officer, will retire, taking responsibility for the research and development team at the heart of the testing scandal.
Japan’s No. 4 automaker by sales said it had used the wrong methods to calculate mileage for models going back to 2010, widening a mileage testing storm that had already rocked smaller rival Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
Quick Link – Osamu Suzuki as CEO
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
World’s 1st passenger drone cleared for testing
The world’s first passenger drone capable of autonomously carrying a person in the air for 23 minutes has been given clearance for testing in Nevada. Chinese firm Ehang, which unveiled the electric Ehang 184 passenger drone at CES in Las Vegas in January, has partnered with the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (Goed) to put the drone through testing and regulatory approval.
The founder and chief executive of Ehang, Huazhi Hu, said the move would lay the foundation for the 184’s commercialisation and kickstart the autonomous aerial transportation industry. Over the past five years, Nevada has been positioning itself as a test bed for advanced transport solutions, being one of the first states in the US to permit the testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads.
Quick Link – Passenger drone
France launches smartphone app for terror alerts
The French government has launched a smartphone app that would alert users to possible terror attacks and provide them with information on how to stay safe. The French Interior Ministry announced the app ahead of the UEFA Euro 2016 soccer tournament, which kicks off outside Paris.
The app, called SAIP (Système d’alerte et d’information des populations), was developed as part of a pilot project following the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. It will use geolocation to deliver information tailored to each user’s location, with alerts appearing less than 15 minutes after an incident is confirmed.
Quick Link – App for terror alerts
SPORTS
Maria Sharapova banned for two years over doping
Maria Sharapova has been banned for two years by the International Tennis Federation for using a prohibited drug. The Russian was provisionally banned in March after testing positive for meldonium at January’s Australian Open. The heart disease drug, which 29-year-old Sharapova says she has been taking since 2006 for health issues, became a banned substance on 1 January 2016.
The five-time Grand Slam winner said she “cannot accept” the “unfairly harsh” ban – and will appeal. Sharapova will challenge the suspension, which is backdated to 26 January 2016, at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
Quick Link – Sharapova banned
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