Current Affairs Today – August 23 2015

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Indian Affairs

• A P Shah Committee recommends MAT relief to FIIs

India accounts for 74% of Smokeless Tobacco Deaths in World

• According to the TeCake study that assessed the impact of smokeless tobacco on adults India accounts for nearly three-fourths of over a quarter million deaths worldwide caused by smokeless tobacco .
• It was the first time that global impact of smokeless tobacco consumption on adults has been assessed.
• 85% of the total burden attributable to smokeless tobacco (SLT) use was in South-East Asia, and India alone accounting for 74% of the global burden, followed by Bangladesh (five per cent) said by Kamran Siddiqi from Hull York Medical School
• The study collected smokeless tobacco consumption figures for 115 countries and estimated burden of disease for 113 of these countries.
• It found that in 2010, smokeless tobacco use led to 62,283 deaths due to cancers of mouth, pharynx and oesophagus and 204,309 deaths from heart diseases.

Rs 700cr from Nirbhaya fund for CCTV cameras on trains

• To strengthen security on trains, Indian Railways is expediting the process of installing CCTV surveillance cameras in 20,000 coaches at a cost of Rs. 700 crore, which will be derived from Nirbhaya Fund.
• It has been decided in a recent meeting held at the PMO to speed up certain projects which include works on new lines, construction of rail over-bridges and under-bridges, improving passenger convenience, and safety and security.

Arunachal Pradesh to sign MoUs for boosting bamboo sector

• Arunachal Pradesh ink Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) and Hindustan Paper Corporation to help potential bamboo growers in the state said by Arunachal Pradesh Bamboo Resource Development Agency(APBRDA) Vice-chairman Yora Tagung.
• MoU would also be signed between the state government and the Hindustan Paper Corporation for exporting one lakh tonne of bamboo for paper manufacturing.
• APBRDA is contemplating to establish a bamboo shoot market for which a land of 70,000 square meters has already been allotted.
• Several skill development and awareness programmes were also conducted to boost bamboo sector.

Jain Irrigation in Fortune’s ‘Change of the World’ list

• India Maharashtra-based micro-irrigation firm Jain Irrigation Systems is the only company from the country named in Fortune magazine’s ‘Change the World’ list of companies.
• Fortune magazine has ranked Jain Irrigation No. 7 in the list of companies that have made serious progress addressing the world’s biggest social and environmental problems as a core part of their corporate strategy.
• Anil Bhavarlal Jain, head of Jain Irrigation said that it has built its business by improving the livelihoods of five million small farmers in India.
• Yields increased dramatically from 50 per cent to 300 per cent, depending on the plant along with farmers’ incomes.

Commerce Ministry to organise India International Seafood show in Vizag

India International Seafood show will be organized in Visakhapatnam by the Government to boost trade and commerce in the seafood sector.

• Commerce and industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while laying the foundation stone of sub-office of Export Inspection Council (EIC) at Visakhapatnam announced it.
• EIC along with its field agency, Exports Inspection Agencies – has a network of 30 sub-offices. They are responsible for the quality control and inspection of notified commodities from India.
• India’s seafood industry has become one of the leading suppliers of quality seafood to all the major markets of the world. India has world class seafood processing plants that follow quality control regimes complaint to stringent international regulatory requirements.

R-Mitra: Indian Railways launches new app for women safety

• Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu introduced a mobile-based application system R-Mitra (Railway Mobile Instant Tracking Response and Assistance) to ensure women’s safety and said that it is an “extremely useful app” that could be used by regional railways nation-wide.
• 2.7 crore to 3 crore people travel in the Indian Railways system on a day-to-day basis.

R-Mitra:

• Railway Mobile Instant Tracking Response and Assistance is to alert the nearest RPF inspector and divisional security control room in case of any emergency .
• Once the button on the app is pressed, the physical location of the victim will be sent to the control room with the help of GPS and GPRS.
• Control room will track the user and ensure action immediately .
• The app works both online and offline in SMS mode by using the helpline number 56161.

Govt approval to develop 50 solar cities

• Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has approved a proposed master plan to develop 50 solar cities out of proposed 60 solar cities.
• Of these 50 cities, master plans have been prepared for 46 cities. The ministry had empanelled 26 consultants in June 2009 to prepare master plan for the development of solar cities.
• 46 cities that include are Agra, Gandhinagar, Rajkot, Surat, Thane, Shirdi, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Bilaspur, Raipur, Agartala, Guwahati, Mysore, Shimla, Hamirpur, Jodhpur, Vijayawada, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Dehradun, Panaji and New Delhi (NDMC area), it added. Further, in-principle approvals have been given to five cities namely Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur, Indore, Leh and Mahbubnagar.
• Eight cities are to be developed as ‘Model Solar Cities’. Of these 8 cities, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar and Mysore have so far been selected to be developed as ‘Model Solar Cities.
• Fifteen cities will be developed as ‘Pilot Solar Cities.’

World’s largest solar power station to come up in Madhya Pradesh

750 Mega Watts (MW) the world’s largest solar power station will be built in
Rewa district’s Gudh area, covering an area of over 1,500 hectares at Bandwar region in Gudh tehsil of Rewa in Madhya Pradesh.

• Under the joint venture of Solar Energy Corporation of India and MP Urja Vikas Nigam, where both parties have 50 per cent stake the project will be done.
• The plant is expected to start generating solar energy by March 2017.
• At present, world’s largest solar power project, Ivanpah Solar Power Facility of 392 MW is at Mojave deserts in California, United States.
• The cost of generating one MW solar energy comes to around Rs. 7.6 crores.

India, Nepal ink MoU to construct Raxaul-Amlekhgunj oil pipeline

• India and Nepal signed an MoU for the construction of 41-km Raxaul-Amlekhgunj oil pipeline. The MoU was signed between Nepal’s Minister for Commerce and Supplies Sunil Bahadur Thapa and Indian Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan.
• This pipeline will be the first of its kind project between two neighbouring countries in the SAARC region in the oil and gas sector. It would would promote bilateral cooperation in the oil and gas sector and secure long-term supply of petroleum products to Nepal.

Key facts of the MoU:-

• The MoU will Secure long term supply of petroleum products including petrol, diesel and kerosene to the Himalayan country as it solely depends on India for all of its petrofuel requirements worth some 41 billion dollars.
• The project for the construction of 41-km Raxaul-Amlekhgunj oil pipeline will be completed in two phases. In the first phase, a petroleum products pipeline from Raxaul in India to Amlekhgunj in Nepal would be constructed.
• The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will bear an expense of INR 200 crore for the first phase of the project while Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) will also contribute INR 75 crore for re-engineering the Amlekhgunj Depot
• Thirty-nine kilometres of the proposed cross-border petroleum pipeline lies in Indian territory and the remaining two kilometres in Nepal.

Banking & Finance 

• SBI developing low-cost model to counter payments banks
• Arun Jaitley inaugurated the Bandhan Bank in Kolkata

Business

DRDO ties up with Ramdev to market supplements

• DRDO entered into licensing agreements with Ramdev’s company for transfer of Seabuckthorn technology based products developed by Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR).
• DIHAR, a frontier laboratory of DRDO which is located in Leh with detachments in the strategic Siachen sector has pioneered cold arid-agro animal technologies for augmenting local availability of fresh food in the region.
• The technology has been transferred under the DRDO FICCI ATAC (Accelerated Technology Assessment & Commercialisation) programme that to land approach, develops technologies for fresh food cultivation, poultry, goat and dairy farming and green house cultivation which are disseminated to the local farmers.

Uber Cabs tied-up with Bharti Airtel to set up WiFi hotspots in each of its cabs

• Bharti Airtel Limited on 21 August 2015 tied-up with the Uber Cabs, allowing Uber riders to pay using Airtel’s mobile wallet service Airtel Money. With this partnership, Uber will set up WiFi hotspots in each of its cabs. Uber will pay Airtel for the bandwidth consumed.
• As part of this partnership, Uber riders across India can now pay for their trips using Airtel’s mobile wallet service Airtel Money. Mumbai will be the first city in India to enjoy free high-speed internet from Uber, powered by Airtel 4G. The service will soon be rolled out for Uber riders pan-India.

Sports

Kartik Tharanisingh wins Formula 1600 title

• Karthik Tharanisingh clinched the title in the MRF Formula Ford 1600 series in style with a win and second place in the final round of the MMSC-FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship at the MMRT track.
• Tharanisingh, who was trailing championship leader Goutham Parekh by 12 points, won the first race and finished second in 193 points.

Golfer Aditi Ashok first Indian to win Ladies British amateur stroke-play Championship

India’s Golfer Aditi Ashok became the first from the country to win the Ladies British Amateur stroke play golf championship at the Moortown Golf Club.

About Aditi Ashok:

• She was a 17-year-old Bangalore girl, who had earlier won the St Rule Trophy at St Andrews in this year and finished second in the 2015 European Women’s Amateur Championship, also claimed the overall title called ‘The Nicholls Trophy’ as well as the ‘Dinwiddy Trophy’ given for the lowest score by an U-18 player.
• Currently 52nd in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, Aditi beat 39 players from around 30 countries including the 2015 Scottish Open Amateur Stroke-play winner Olivia Mehaffey of Ireland who took the second spot at six-under 290.

Obituary

Australian cricket legend “Arthur Morris” passes away

• Former Australian Test opening batsman Arthur Morris, a member of Don Bradman’s 1948 Invincibles team, has died aged 93
• Arthur Morris has played 46 Test matches between 1946 and 1955 and made 3533 runs at an average of 46.46 and captained Australia in two Test. He had retired from international cricket at the age of 33.
• Morris made his Test debut against England during their tour of Australia in 1946- 47 when he overcame a slow start to make three consecutive centuries. Morris is regarded as one of Australia’s greatest left-handed batsmen.

Books & Authors

Vice President releases the book ‘Modern Thought Leaders- Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Lectures (1997-2014)’

• The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that the ideal way to remember any person is to organize Memorial Lectures in his memory and it gave him immense pleasure to release the book- Modern Thought Leaders- Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Lectures (1997-2014)
• Addressing after releasing a book ‘Modern Thought Leaders- Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Lectures (1997-2014)’ edited by Shri Anil Shastri, Former Union Minister and son of Late Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Important Days

• International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition – August 23