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
TCS chief N Chandrasekaran appointed to board of Reserve Bank
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO and managing director Natarajan Chandrasekaran and two others were appointed as non-official directors to the board of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved appointment of former Chief Secretary of Gujarat Sudhir Mankad as part-time non-official director on the central board of the RBI for a period of four years.
Besides Mr Mankad, Mr Chandrasekaran of TCS has also been appointed as part-time non-official director on the RBI board, it said. Bharat Narotam Doshi, non-executive chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra, is the third part-time non-official director on the central board of the bank, the department said. Both Mr Chandrasekaran and Mr Doshi will have a tenure of four years.
Quick Link – RBI’s Non Official Directors
INDIAN AFFAIRS
Climate change may kill half million people by 2050
According to new research published in the Lancet, Climate change could kill more than 500,000 people a year globally by 2050 by making their diets less healthy. The research is the strongest evidence yet that climate change could have damaging consequences for food production and health worldwide. Researcher Marco Springmann from the University of Oxford said that much research has looked at food security, but little has focused on the wider health effects of agricultural production. Changes in food availability and intake also affect dietary and weight-related risk factors such as low fruit and vegetable intake, high red meat consumption, and high bodyweight. These all increase the incidence of non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, stroke and cancer and death from them.
Quick Link – Climate change
SC refuses interim relief to telcos on call drop
The Supreme Court has declined any interim relief to telecom companies against the Delhi High Court’s order upholding TRAI’s decision making it mandatory for them to compensate subscribers for call drops from January 1, 2016. The telecoms said a “100 per cent call drop-free network” is impossible under the Law of Physics and will cost them hundreds of crores in compensation payable to customers every month. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), on the other hand, maintained that its Telecom Consumers Protection (9th Amendment) Regulations, 2015 — which was upheld by the Delhi High Court last month — was framed purely in the interest of the common man. The petition has been filed jointly by the Cellular Operators Association of India, and telecom majors such as Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Telenor.
Quick Link – Telcos on call drop
GOI to digitise all rural post offices by 2017
IT and telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told in Parliament that the government plans to digitise nearly 1.3 lakh rural post offices by March 2017. The government has approved Rs 4,909 crore for modernisation of 1.55 lakh post offices including 1.29 lakh post offices in rural areas, called Gramin Dak Sewak post offices. The modernisation process will include setting up centralised data centres and disaster recovery centres, networking of all post offices. The budget also includes training postmen who will be given solar powered hand held devices, connected to data centers via SIMs, which will give rural consumers access to financial remittances and saving accounts through biometric scanning apart from other identification tools.
Quick Link – All rural post offices by 2017
Paytm ties up with Delhi Metro for card recharge
Paytm has tied up with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). As a part of the agreement, Delhi Metro travellers will be able to recharge their metro cards via Paytm and DMRC website. The announcement was made on the company’s blog and the service was also launched. The move is made in a bid to make traveling by Metro a hassle free experience for over 2.3 Mn commuters that use the Metro train service on a daily basis. The company statement said that it hopes the move will not only reduce the check-in time of passengers but will also motivate other daily commuters who travel on their own to take up Metro as their preferred way to commute. The metro cards can be recharged through Paytm’s app, website, and also via DMRC website.
Quick Link – Paytm with DMRC
President inaugurates National Conference on Women Legislation
President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurates first-ever National Conference of Women Legislators in New Delhi. President Mukherjee said the country has not been able to achieve more than 12 per cent representation for women out of the total membership of Parliament. The meeting with the theme, ‘Role of Women Legislators in Nation Building’, has been organised by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. It was attended by women lawmakers from across the country besides Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury.
Quick Link – National Conference of Women Legislation
Traditional Chapchar Kut festival celebrated across Mizoram
Chapchar Kut, the most important traditional festival of the Mizoram people was celebrated across the state and also in the Mizo-inhabited areas in the neighbouring states. Dressed in traditional attire, exuberant dancers danced to the tune of typical music and songs while popular Mizo dances including Cheraw, Sarlamkai, Chheihlam and Khuallam were performed by different cultural troupes.
Well-known singers and pop groups also performed in different places where the Kut was celebrated including the Assam Rifles ground in Aizawl, the main place of the Kut celebrations. In Aizawl, state state home minister R Lalzirliana was the ‘Kut pa’ or father of the festival, while state Art and Culture minister R Romawia was the ‘Kut thlengtu’ or host of the festival.
Quick Link – Chapchar Kut
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
River Atoyac vanishes overnight after tremors
Thousands of Mexicans were astonished when they woke up to discover their local river had vanished overnight. The Atoyac River, the sole source of water for 10,000 in the state of Veracruz, is thought to have disappeared into a crevasse following an earthquake tremor. It is unclear how much of the river, which crosses eight municipalities in the mountainous area of central Mexico, was affected by the suspected sinkhole. The river, which flows through eight municipalities in a mountainous area of central Mexico, is thought to have vanished into a crevasse. Residents of San Fermin, where the crack opened up, claimed to have heard a loud noise and feeling the whole earth trembling beneath them during the night.
Quick Link – River Atoyac vanishes
Philippines seizes North Korea ship after sanctions
The Philippines says it has seized a North Korean ship in line with tightened UN sanctions targeting the country’s nuclear programme. The Jin Teng is one of 31 ships operated by North Korean firm Ocean Maritime Management, which is subject to an asset freeze and sanctions. New UN sanctions were imposed after North Korea’s recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests. They include mandatory inspections of all cargo going to or from the DPRK. The Philippines government says it will impound the Jin Teng and eventually deport the crew. The Jin Teng was sailing under a Sierra Leone flag. Pyongyang reacted to Wednesday’s sanctions by firing six short-range missiles into the sea. Leader Kim Jong-Un later ordered that the country’s nuclear weapons should be “ready for use” at any time.
Quick Link – Philippines seizes N K ship
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
New breast cancer drug that slows tumour growth
A new treatment for breast cancer has been hailed a “game changer” after it was found to slow the progression of aggressive breast cancer by nine months. By combining an established hormone drug called fulvestrant with a new treatment called palbociclib, doctors found they could slow the cancer growth in around two thirds of women with advanced forms of the most common type of breast cancer, thereby delaying the need for chemotherapy. The international study, which was carried out across 17 countries, followed 521 women who received either palbociclib and fulvestrant, or a dummy pill and fulvestrant. Women who took the new combination of drugs saw the progression of their cancer slow by an average of 9.5 months, compared with 4.6 months in the placebo group.
Quick Link – Game Changer-Palbociclib
SPORTS
PepsiCo named new associate sponsor of BCCI
Within months after withdrawing as the title sponsor for the Indian Premier League (IPL), soft drinks major PepsiCo has re-entered into a collaboration with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as one of its three new associate sponsors. In October last year, PepsiCo pulled out of their deal with the IPL due to the spot-fixing scandal that tarnished the image of the cash-rich tournament. However, the American company is back on the cricket field and will be the BCCI’s sponsor for ground activities, beverage and snacks in all international fixtures over the next four years. Two more associates sponsors will shortly be announced, and all three combine together will earn BCCI a revenue of Rs. 150 crore in four years.
Quick Link – PepsiCo with BCCI
FIH promotes Napoleon Singh as international Umpire
Hockey India national-level umpire Napoleon Singh has been promoted to the International Outdoor Umpire by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The FIH took the decision yesterday after seeing his performance in the recently-concluded 12th South Asian Games 2016, held at Guwahati from February 5 to 16. Napoleon started his career as an umpire from Manipur in the third Hockey India Junior Women National Championship 2013 held at Ranchi, Jharkhand. From there on he never stepped back and was a regular umpire to officiate in all the major tournaments conducted under the aegis of Hockey India.
Quick Link – Napolean Singh
OBITUARY
Veteran film archist PK Nair passes away
India’s pioneering film archivist and film scholar PK Nair, who won the epithet ‘celluloid man’ for his impeccable body of work as the founder of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), has passed away. Indian film fraternity members mourned the demise of the “beloved son of cinema”. Born in 1933 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Nair’s interest in films began with 1940s Tamil mythological dramas such as Ananthasayanam and Bhakta Prahlada. His stint with the NFAI started in 1965 as assistant curator; 17 years later, in 1982, he became the director. Paramesh Krishnan Nair, better known as PK Nair, joined the Film and Television Institute in Pune as a Research Assistant in 1961. Celluloid Man is a 2012 documentary film directed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur that explores the life and work of P. K. Nair, the guardian of Indian cinema.
Quick Link – PK Nair passes away
Pat Conroy, author of Prince of Tides, passes away
Pat Conroy, the best-selling novelist who blended tales of his childhood with vivid descriptions of life in
South Carolina in books including “The Great Santini” and “The Prince of Tides,” has died at the age of 70. Conroy, who had announced in a Feruary 15 Facebook post that he had pancreatic cancer, died at his home in South Carolina surrounded by friends and family.
Quick Link – Pat Conroy
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