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

Patrick Dupuis appointed to Wipro’s Board of Directors

Wipro, India’s third largest software services firm has roped in financial and business strategist Patrick Dupuis as an independent member on its board.

• He is currently senior vice president for simplicity, quality and productivity at global technology platform and payments leader PayPal Holdings Inc.
• Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro, said Mr Dupuis brings with him a combination of financial acumen and a deep understanding of driving cultural and operational transformation.
• Mr Dupuis joined PayPal in 2010 as chief financial officer to help the company expand globally and build a sustainable growth company.
• He was instrumental in PayPal’s separation from eBay Inc and listing on the Nasdaq in 2015. Mr Dupuis was previously the CFO of Sitel, a leader in customer service, and BJC Healthcare, one of the largest non-profit health care organisations in the US.
• He previously spent 20 years at GE.

Quick Link – Patrick Dupuis as BOD

BANKING AND FINANCE

LIC increases stake in Dena Bank, Andhra Bank

Public sector lender Dena Bank has raised Rs. 65 crore by issuing over 2 crore shares to Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) on a preferential basis. Andhra Bank also said it has sold an over 4.23 per cent stake to LIC on a preferential allotment, without disclosing the amount.

• Post-acquisition of additional shares in Dena Bank, LIC’s stake in the lender has gone up to 14.5 per cent from 11.63 per cent earlier, Dena Bank said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.
• Andhra Bank said it has sold over 4.23 per cent stake equivalent to 28,853,210 shares to LIC on a preferential allotment. The price per unit at which Andhra Bank sold shares to LIC was not provided.
• After the additional stake buy in Andhra Bank, LIC holds more than 14.39 per cent in the lender, from over 10.15 per cent earlier.

Quick Link – LIC in DENA BANK, ANDHRA BANK

INDIAN AFFAIRS

Bihar passes bill to ban liquor in the state

The Bihar Assembly has unanimously passed the Bihar Excise (Amendment) Bill 2016 to enforce the ban on country made liquor from April 1. The 1915 liquor Bill was amended to incorporate stricter penal provisions, including death sentence, for manufacturers and distributors of illicit liquor in the event of a hooch tragedy.

• In the first phase, there will be a complete prohibition in rural areas besides a complete ban on country-made liquor across the state while Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) will be sold in limited areas of the state i.e. municipal corporations and councils.
• There is a provision for life term sentence for those who manufacture and trade illicit liquor and whose consumption makes a person disabled or cause loss to the human body.
• Those who manufacture, trade and transport illicit liquor or making people drink industrial spirit or country-made liquor as foreign liquor, then such person would be handed down with a minimum of 10 years of sentence which may extend up to life, besides a fine of Rs 1 to 10 lakh.
• If anyone creates a scene at public places after consuming liquor, he would be sentenced with a minimum five years of sentence which may be extended up to 10 years.

Quick Link – Bihar Excise (Amendment) Bill 2016

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Faustin Archange Touadera is Central African Republic’s new President

Central African Republic‘s newly elected president Faustin Archange Touadera took the oath of office, ushering in the first elected leader since Muslim rebels overthrew the government more than three years ago.

• The inauguration came as former coloniser France said its troops plan to leave the country by the end of the year.
• The French forces worked to stabilize the long volatile country until a United Nations peacekeeping force was in place, though both missions have been tarnished by allegations of child sexual abuse.
• Touadera, a former math professor and prime minister, emerged from a crowded field of candidates and won the February 14 runoff with nearly 63 percent of the vote.
• Both Touadera and the runner-up candidate, Anicet Georges Dologuele, are Christians and campaigned on promises to help reunify the country plagued by sectarian violence that exploded in late 2013 between Muslim and Christian militias.

Quick Link – Faustin Archange Touadera as CAR President

Thailand hit by worst drought in over 20 years

Thailand is in the grip of its worst drought for more than 20 years, with water levels in the country’s biggest dams lower than 10 percent. The current drought has hit the north hardest, with 22 of Thailand’s 76 provinces affected.

• Agriculture has been severely affected, and there are genuine fears that taps could run dry within a matter of weeks. Several major reservoirs in the country are below 50 percent of their water capacity.
• The situation is so bad at the Ubolrat dam they are about to dip into what is locally known as “dead storage” – this refers to the last 1 percent in the bottom of the reservoir.
• Thailand recently started pumping water from the Mekong River into its own waterways.
• Unsurprisingly, this has sparked concern from downstream countries such as Vietnam, which is suffering its worst drought in almost a century.

Quick Link – Thailand hit by worst drought

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Modi, Beligian PM launch Asia’s biggest telescope

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Belgian counterpart Charles Michel remotely launched Asia’s biggest telescope, the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), built with Belgian assistance. The telescope with a 3.6-metre-wide primary mirror located at Devasthal near Nainital in Uttarakhand.

• ARIES, the largest optical telescope of its kind in Asia, is a product of Indo-Belgian collaboration. It will be used to study star structures and magnetic field structures of stars.
• ARIES will be used to study star structures and magnetic field structures of stars.

Prime Minister Modi said “This product of Indo-Belgian collaboration is an inspiring example of what our partnership can achieve. The work is also afoot on other agreements in the areas of Information and Communication Technology, audio-visual production Tourism biotechnology and shipping and ports”. 

Quick Link – Asia’s biggest telescope

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

India-US to sign MoU for building LIGO project

India will sign an MoU with the United States for building a state-of-the-art Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) project in the country.

• The MoU will be signed between the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the US and India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet scientists from the LIGO project.
• The MoU also states of forming a Joint Oversight Group (JOG) with the scientists from NSF, DAE and DST for better coordination of the project.
• The government last month gave an “in-principle approval” for establishing the LIGO-India project which will establish a state-of-the-art gravitational wave observatory in India in collaboration with the LIGO Laboratory in the US, run by Caltech and MIT.
• The project will bring unprecedented opportunities for scientists and engineers to dig deeper into the realm of gravitational wave and take global leadership in this new astronomical frontier.

Quick Link – LIGO

ENVIRONMENT

Rare sand-eating tadpoles discovered in Western Ghats

Researchers have discovered a tadpole that eats sand, lives in darkness till the time it turns into a young frog. The tadpoles were discovered at the Western Ghats. The discovery has been made by scientists from the University of Delhi, the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and Gettysburg College, California.

• The tadpole belongs to the Indian Dancing Frog family, Micrixalidae.
• They are called dancing frogs because of their nature of waving their legs signalling territorial and sexual display. “We provide the first confirmed report of the tadpoles of Indian Dancing frog family.
• These tadpoles probably remained unnoticed all these years because of their fossorial [underground] nature.
• The purple tadpoles were found in the deep recesses of streambeds.
• With eel-like bodies and skin-covered eyes, they burrow through gravel beds. They don’t have teeth but serrated jaw sheaths, which help them feed and move through sand.

Quick Link – Tadpole

Thank you 🙂 🙂 🙂