November 11 & 12 – Current Affairs Quick Gyan

In Current Affairs 2017
November 12, 2015

Muna Chauhan – Indian-origin campaigner awarded by David Cameron

Muna Chauhan, a 46-year-old Indian-origin community campaigner in the UK has been named “Point of Light” by British Prime Minister David Cameron. She has been recognized for her “fantastic” charity work and empowering young people, including women. Chauhan was awarded for her work as a children’s charity fundraiser and for empowering hundreds of women and young people to get involved with their community as volunteers.

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China, Middle East to be new gas-guzzlers by 2035

China and the Middle East, insisted by lower prices and enough supply, will drive global natural gas demand growth in the next 25 years as consumption in Europe fails to recover to peak levels seen in 2010, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Both regions will become larger gas users than Europe by 2035, the Paris-based IEA said in its World Energy Outlook 2015.

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American musician Allen Toussaint dies of a heart attack at 77

American musician Allen Toussaint, has died of a heart attack. He was 77. He was known for songs like “Working In The Coalmine” and “Southern Nights”. The influential R&B figure passed away following a concert he performed in Spain. Rescue workers were called to Toussaint’s hotel early on November 10 morning and managed to revive him after he suffered a heart attack. But Toussaint stopped breathing during the ambulance ride to a hospital, and efforts to revive him again were unsuccessful. Toussaint performed November 9 night at Madrid’s Lara Theater. He was a legend in the music world.

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SBI to launch mobile wallet ”Batua” for feature phone users next month

Country’s largest lender State Bank Of India is all set to become the first bank to offer wallet services for feature phone users. SBI is set to launch mobile wallet “Batua” next month and the service will be available to existing as well as non-SBI customers. The application will be available on Java-enabled mobile phones.

Post-launch customers can log into sbi.co.in download “Batua” on their desktop and load the app on their phone. The bank has been ramping up its efforts to become the banker to Digital India. It has an annual IT budget of Rs 3,000 crore, a 20%MARKET share, a customer base of 28.6 crore, of which 2.3 crore are net banking customers and 1.2 crore are mobile banking customers.

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Government working on plan to curb NPAs in public sector banks

The government is working on a detailed plan to tackle bad loans at public sector banks. NPAs (Non Performing Assets) curtail their ability to lend and restrain private investment. Thus posing a significant threat to the broader Indian economy. The government wants to kick start private investment, that a more radical and focused approach is needed to address the issue besides capital infusion in the long term. The plan is being discussed by Prime Minister’s Office and the finance ministry.

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India tops content takedown requests from Facebook

India made the highest number of content restriction requests(screaming 15,155) from Facebook in the first six months of this year, according to the social network’s Government Requests Report, which it releases biannually. India has been the top requestor for content removal requests from Facebook since the past two years. The number of requests in January-June 2015 more than tripled from the previous six months, when India made 5,832 requests.

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Italian diplomat Filippo Grandi to be new UN refugee chief

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced the appointment of Italian diplomat Filippo Grandi as the new UN refugee chief, tasked with handling the world’s worst refugee crisis. The 58-year-old diplomat will replace Antonio Guterres, of Portugal, who was UN High Commissioner for Refugees since 2005. Grandi, who will take up the job on January 1, beat out former Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and German Achim Steiner, the director of the UN Environment Program, for the key appointment.

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Amazon debuts in Thomson Reuters 2015 top 100 innovators list

Online marketplace Amazon.com Inc has made its debut in the 2015 Thomson Reuters Top 100 global innovators list, leaving International Business Machines Corp, the world’s largest technology services company, out of the list. Amazon joins the innovators list for the first time for innovations in data centers, devices, electronic methods and systems, according to its latest report.

The Thomson Reuters Top 100 global innovators program identifies innovators annually through an in-depth analysis based on a series of patent-related metrics that analyze what it means to be truly innovative. There are 27 companies that are dropped from the list this year, including AT&T, IBM, Siemens and Xerox.

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IISc makes Indian debut in top 100 world university ranking

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore broke India’s poor ranking spell by making a debut in the world’s top 100 universities for engineering and technology. IISc made its entry at 99th spot in a list that remains dominated by US institutions with Stanford, CalTech and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the top three positions in the ‘Times Higher Education (THE) Ranking for Engineering & Technology’. THE has singled out the year as one of Asian progress, with the US holding 31 positions – down from 34 last year – while Asia holds 25 positions in the Top 100, up from 18 last year.

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IS Jha appointed CMD of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd

State-run transmission utility Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) on November 12 appointed IS Jha as its Chairman and Managing Director. Jha was the Director Projects since 2009 and was also holding the additional charge as CMD of the company.

IS Jha has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited with effect from November 10, 2015. The CMD was on board of state transmission utilities of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, governing board member of CPRI and member of board of governors of Indian Institute of Forest Management.

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Government extends tenure of Lahiri Panel by one year

Government has extended by one year the tenure of a high level committee set up under former Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri to suggest steps to sort out taxation problem being faced by the trade and industry. The panel was given the task of interacting with the industry on tax related issues on regular basis and ascertain areas where clarity in tax laws is required.

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PM Narendra Modi leaves for his three-day visit to the UK

Seeking to strengthen Indo-UK economic ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 12 left for Britain to begin his first visit to the country. During the visit he will have a hectic schedule that will start with talks with his British counterpart David Cameron.