Indian Affairs
- India on recovery phase – Ranked 55th in Global competitiveness Index
India overtakes China and the United States by grabbing the crown of the foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Financial Times report. With this India becomes the world’s number one pool for foreign direct investments. India surpasses China with $3 billion and US with $4 billion as the total foreign capital inflows
- In the half yearly report of 2015 India received a total of $31 billion in foreign capital inflows followed by China $28 billion and US third with $27 billion.
- There is a jump of $ 18 billion in India’s FDI compared to first half of the last year which were $12 billion and was ranked at 5thposition.
STEPS BEHIND THIS MOVEUP
- Initiatives taken by NaMo government like “Make in India” for making India as an attractive investment destination and his foreign trips doubled the investment levels in comparison to yester year and India emerged as top platform for foreign investments.
- Also the Government decisions for relaxing norms for FDI fectched many global investors.
Union Cabinet released a commemorative postal stamp on Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar with a commitment that it will also launch a coin in his honour. Coin already received an approval from Finance Ministry. Stamp was released by Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
- NICKNAME – Babasaheb
- He was an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer
- He was an India’s first Law Minister and appointed as Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee
- Dr Ambedkar was given the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 1990 posthumously whereas he died in 1956.
- Mission A 10-MW solar photo voltaic power plant was commissioned in Neyveli Set up the 10 mw solar power project at Neyveli, become the first renewal energy project of the company announced by Surender Mohan, CMD of the company.
- NLC is operating thermal power Stations of 4240 mw capacity in Neyveli, Barsingsar in Rajasthan State and Thoothukudi. To start with, the company has established a 10 MW solar photo volatic project at Neyveli, at a cost of Rs 74.60 crore.
- Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) contractor of this project, This power plant installed in an area of 54 acres and 48,000 solar photo voltaic modules (solar panels), each with the power generating capacity of 240 watt are fitted for the project and the entire power would be fed to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Company (Tangedco).
- Government will cut natural gas prices for power and fertiliser sector by 16 percent to USD 4.24 per unit for the six month period.
- Natural gas prices will fall to 4.24 US dollar million British thermal unit (mmbtu) on net calorific value (NCV) basis from the current 5.50 US dollar mmbtu.
- The new gas price for October 1st to March 31st would be 3.82 us dollar per mmBtu as compared to 4.66 us dollar currently.
International Affairs
- India, Japan and US trio meet to maintain Maritime Security
China launched a new generation navigation satellite BDS I2-S which is a 20th satellite for its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System. It was launched by Long March3B carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
China’s own version navigation satellite BDS I2-S is parallel with US GPS (global positioning system) system and Europe’s Galileo.
It is named after Chinese term which means “plough” or “big dipper constellation” and is featured with hydrogen atomic clock which will provide accurate positioning service.
- Civilian use is 10 meters
- Timing accuracy of 20 nanoseconds
- Velocity accuracy of 0.2 meters per second
- It is expected that BeiDou will provide global coverage by 2017.
- Beidou project was launched in 1994.
- Taliban militants have captured the strategic northern Afghan city of Kunduz to raising fresh concerns about the country’s ability to provide its own security and now control a major urban area for the first time since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
- This massive attack comes a day before the first anniversary of President Ashraf Ghani’s unity government. The Taliban has been pressing attacks against Afghan security forces since the U.S. combat mission there officially ended last year and the government assumed responsibility for security.
- The Kunduz assault highlighted the resiliency of the Taliban following the revelation earlier this year that their reclusive longtime leader Mullah Mohammad Omar died two years ago.
- It is also one of the massive attack undertaken by Taliban militants after formal end of US-NATO coalition mission in Afghanistan in December 2014.
Awards
Indo-British van driver Dee Patel honoured with Pride of Britain Award- Prince Charles honour a British-Indian delivery van driver Dee Patel with the ‘Pride of Britain Award’. He will receive the award in the outstanding bravery category in a glittering ceremony at the Grosvenor House .
- Patel loaded up his van and set off on a routine job when he was faced with a terrifying life-or-death situation when he spotted a car ahead of him that was dangerously out of control on the M25 motorway.
- Pride of Britain award Founded in 1999, this award will give to people who have risked his life to save others.
- The winners are decided by a panel of distinguished judges and is jointly supported by the Daily Mirror, Lidl, ITV, Daybreak and the Prince’s Trust.
Indo-American Kartik Chandran (41) an environmental engineer has been conferred with 2015 MacArthur Fellow and given a ‘genius’ grant of $625,000 for working on a transforming wastewater from a pollutant and finding solution to the world’s need for food and energy.
- He is associate professor of earth and environmental engineering at Columbia Engineering
- He also he received a grant of $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2011 for developing a transformative water model for sanitation in Africa.
- He was also honoured with the Water Environment Research Foundation Paul L. Busch Award (2010), National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2009) and National Academies of Science Fellowship (2007).
Arjuna Award 2015 presented to M.R. Poovamma and Babita Kumari
- For outstanding excellence in the field of sports; Sprinter Machettira Raju Poovamma (Athletics) and Wrester Babita Kumari have been honoured with Arjuna Award 2015.
- The award was given by Minister of State for Youth affairs and Sports Shri Sarbananda Sonowal in New Delhi.
Appointments & Resigns
Keshari Nath Tripathi sworn in as Tripura Governor
- Reigning Governor of West Bengal Keshari Nath Tripathi (80) has been given with the additional charge of Tripura. He became the 17thgovernor of the state.
- Tripathi took the additional charge on the post of Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy who is on one month leave with the approval of President Pranab Mukherjee. He will return on November 3, 2015.
- He served as speaker of the Uttar Pradesh assembly — in 1991, 1997 and 2002.
- Tripathi practised as a senior lawyer in the Allahabad High Court from 1956 till 2014.
- He was sworn in as the Governor of Bihar on November 27, 2014
- He was sworn in as Governor of Meghalaya on January 6, 2015 then on April 4, 2015 he was sworn in as Governor of Mizoram.
- V Shanmuganthan has sworn in as the 17th Governor of Manipur after taking oath at ceremony held at Raj Bhawan in Imphal. He succeeded Dr. Syed Ahmed who had died in late in September 2015.
- Chief justice of Manipur high court justice Laxmi Kant Mahapatra administered the oath of office and secrecy to Shanmuganathan at a ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan here.
- The ceremony was attended by chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, cabinet ministers and other senior officials of the state government and the police.
After giving 13 years of service to foreign bank HSBC, the banker woman Naina Lal Kidwai (58) will retire in December as its chairperson. She will also bow out from HSBC Asia-Pacific as an executive Director on the Board. She also served Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry as its President.
- Mrs. Kidwai joined HSBC in 2002 as Vice Chairman and Managing Director at HSBC Securities and Capital Markets
- She was appointed Group General Manager of the Bank in 2006.
- She assumed as CEO of HSBC India in 2007 and became its Chairman in 2009.
- She was awarded with Padma Shri award for her contributions in trade and industry and consecutively ranked in Fortune global list of Top Women in Business.
- She is editor of books “Contemporary Banking in India” and “30 Women in Power”
- Former ambassador Jayant Prasad has been appointed the next Director General of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).
- The post of director general of IDSA had been vacant since August 2014 .Mr. Prasad takes charge at a special moment in the history of IDSA as 2015 marks the fiftieth year of existence of the think tank.
- Mr. Prasad served in Afghanistan as the Indian Ambassador during 2008-2010 and as Ambassador to Nepal during 2011-2013.
- Prasad has also served as India’s permanent representative to the Conference on Disarmament, Geneva, ambassador to Algeria, and counsellor for trade access and development cooperation at the Indian Mission to the European Union in Brussels. He had also served as joint secretary (Americas) in the external affairs ministry.
As an answer to who will be the face for Digital India programme, Union Government issued a press release stated with the names of country’s first ambassadors for NaMo’s initiative programme.
Government finally appointed four Brand Ambassadors as a part of the Digital India week from July 1-7, 2015 for a period of one year to promote the products and applications and generating awareness programmes which will launched by the department under Digital India Programme.
Names of Digital India ambassadors
- Satwat Jagwani (17) All India IIT-JEE – Advanced Topper -2015 (Student)
- Ms. Krati Tiwari (17) All India IIT-JEE – Advanced Girl Topper -2015 (Student)
- Mr Ankit Fadia (30) known as “ethical hacktivist” – Author & Ethical Hacker
- Shri Pranav Mistry (34) – Computer Scientist and Author of 6th Sense, Global Vice President of Research at Samsung, USA
Check This Video – Pranav Mistry 6th sense presentation in Ted 2009
Neelesh Garg appointed MD and CEO of Tata AIG General Insurance
- As a successor of KK Mishra Tata AIG General Insurance Company Limited appointed Neelesh Garg as its Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
- Before appointed as head of Tata AIG General Insurance he served ICICI Lombard over 12 years as an Executive Director (ED)
- He started his career with ICICI Ltd in 1995 then he worked with Citigroup in the department of treasury and mortgages.
- Tata AIG General Insurance Company Limited is a joint venture of Tata Group with 74% stake in it and American International Group Incorporation (AIG) having stake of 26%.
- Tata AIG General Insurance Company formed on January 22, 2001 which offers general insurance products also or Motor Insurance, Health Insurance, Home Insurance, Travel Insurance, Lifestyle Insurance.
Acquisitions & Mergers
Azur Global acquires Chennai-based Sybrant Technologies- Chicago-based Azur Global, an IT services and solutions provider, announced acquired Chennai-based Sybrant Technologies Limited, to builds multi-channel internet products. Both the companies did not disclosed the value of the acquisition.
- Azur works mainly with Fortune 100 companies and its revenues stands at around $30 million and targets $100 million next year.Azur, which has 50 per cent of its offshore work force in Chennai and Hyderabad said Ranghan Venkatraman, founder and CEO of Azur Global.
- V Thiyagarajan, Founder of Sybrant Technologies will be the managing director of Azur India.
- Drug firm GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals has acquired Novartis’ vaccines business and divested its marketed oncology portfolio to NovartisBSE 2.54 % Healthcare.
Sports
BAI appoints Sportzlive as marketing partners for IBL- Badminton Association of India(BAI) on announced the appointment of Sportzlive as its official marketing and sponsorship partner for the second season of the Indian Badminton League (IBL) scheduled to be held from January 2 to 17 , 2016.
- Indian Badminton League will feature six franchisee teams across India who will beef up their teams with the very best Indian and International Badminton players. The player auctions have been scheduled for the 20th of November, 2015.
- BAI President : Akhilesh Das Gupta.
- Sportzlive Chairman : Atul Pande.
- West Indies have failed to qualify for the 2017 Champions Trophy in England as they were not among the top eight ODI teams as per ICC rankings on September 30, 2015, paving the way for Bangladesh’s entry. –
- Bangladesh will return to the Champions Trophy for the first time since 2006 after the eight sides were confirmed for the 2017 tournament, which will be hosted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) from June 1 to 18.
Books & Authors
Hungry Bengal: War, Famine, Riots and the End of Empire authored by Janam Mukherjee- The book titled Hungry Bengal. War, Famine, Riots and the End of Empire authored by Janam Mukherjee was in news in fourth week of September 2015.
- The book Hungry Bengal highlights the tumultuous period in the history of Bengal before the independence and after partition of India. It says that Bengal represented both as a major front in the Indian struggle against colonial rule, as well as a crucial front in the British/American conflict with Japan during World War II.
Important Days
International Translation Day – September 30th- International Translation Day is celebrated every year on 30 September on the feast of St. Jerome, the Bible translator.
- The celebrations have been promoted by FIT (International Federation of Translators) .It was set up in 1953.
- International Translation Day to show solidarity of the worldwide translation community in an effort to promote the translation
- Theme : “The Changing Face of Translation and Interpreting”
