Current Affairs Daily Updates: 16th May 2017
APPOINTMENTS
Yes Bank to appoint Debjani Ghosh as independent director
- Mid-sized private sector lender
Yes Bank has announced the appointment of computer hardware company
Intel’s executive Debjani Ghosh as an additional director on its board.
- Ghosh’s appointment as a
non-executive director will be considered by the shareholders at the
bank’s forthcoming annual general meeting on June 6, a bank statement
said.
- She has been associated with
Intel since 1996 and has held positions including country head and
managing director for South Asia.
Indian appointed to high-level UN
climate change post
- A senior Indian official has
been appointed as the deputy executive secretary of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), under which the landmark
Paris agreement was negotiated and adopted.
- Ovais Sarmad, 57, was appointed
to the post at the assistant secretary-general level by UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
- Sarmad will succeed Richard
Kinley of Canada.
AWARDS
AND HONOURS
Pawan Kumar Chamling conferred with first BS Shekhawat award
- Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan
Kumar Chamling was conferred with the first Bhairon Singh Shekhawat Lifetime
Achievement Honour in Public Service by President Pranab Mukherjee.
- The award was conferred during
the first Bhairon Singh Shekhawat memorial lecture delivered by the
President.
- Sikkim is known as the 'Land of
Flowers' with a population of around six lakhs, It is gaining popularity
as a fully organic state in India.
BUSINESS
AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
HDFC Life inks distribution tie-up with Catholic Syrian Bank
- HDFC Life has entered into a
bancassurance (the selling of life assurance and other insurance products
and services by banking institutions) tie-up with Catholic Syrian Bank to
distribute its individual life insurance products to the private lender’s
customers.
- HDFC Life will offer its leading
range of individual life insurance, health and pension products to the
Catholic Syrian Bank’s 1.5 million customer base across all its branches
over a period of time.
India’s GDP projected to grow 7.4% in 2017-18: FICCI survey
- The Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) predicted India’s gross domestic
product (GDP) growth will be around 7.4% for fiscal 2017-18.
- Agriculture sector which is
estimated to reach 3.5 per cent growth and improvement.
- The industrial and services
sector are expected to grow by 6.9% and 8.4% respectively in 2017-18.
INTERNATIONAL
AFFAIRS
UN Security Council to Hold Emergency Meeting After North Korea
Missile Test
- The United Nations Security
Council (UNSC) will hold an emergency meeting on North Korea's latest
missile test.
- The long-range strategic
ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 (Mars-12) is launched by North Korea on May
15, 2017.
- The US, Japan and Soth Korea
requested the emergency discussions after Pyongyang launched a missile.
- Headquarters of UNSC - New york
City, United States.
India ranks 26 in World Bank Power List
- India to be ranked 26th in World
Bank’s electricity accessibility list in the current year from 99th spot
in 2014.
- Out of the 18,452 villages which
lacked electricity, over 13,000 villages has been provided access to
electricity.
- The flagship scheme Deendayal
Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) was launched by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi with an aim to provide 24×7 uninterrupted electricity supply
to each rural household across the country by 2022.
Edouard Philippe appointed as Prime
Minister of France
- French President Emmanuel Macron
appointed Edouard Philippe as the new Prime Minister of France.
- Edouard Philippe is the
second-youngest Prime Minister of France after Laurent Fabius.
- Philippe is the Mayor of the
port city Le Havre since 2010 and is a member of the Les Republicans
party.
Mumbai is the world’s busiest single-runway
airport
- The GVK group-run Mumbai airport
has become the world's busiest amongst the single-runway facilities by
handling 837 flights a day or one in 65 seconds on an average in fiscal
2017, taking over London's Gatwick airport that had 757 flights a day.
- In terms of the number of
passengers also, the city airport tops with 45.2 million people flying in
and out in fiscal 2017 as against 44 million at Gatwick airport.
- Notably, no other large city in
the world is served by one airport, that too with a single-runway.
NATIONAL
AFFAIRS
Bengal Government makes Bengali mandatory in schools
- West Bengal State government has
made Bengali mandatory in all schools, including private English medium
schools.
- Apart from Bengali, English and
Hindi, students can opt for other languages such as Urdu, Gurmukhi, Nepali
and Ol-Chiki as the medium of instruction in schools of the State.
- The decision was taken in
schools comes at the backdrop of Kerala government’s recent promulgation
of an ordinance in April making Teaching of Malayalam compulsory in all
schools of Kerala.
V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust and TANGEDCO
Sign MoU to upgrade Coal Jetty-I&II
- V.O. Chidambaranar Port (VOCP)
is set to increase a four-fold in the capacity of two of its Coal Jetties
(CJ) – Jetty I and II from 6.25 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 24.
- The VOCP Trust signed a
Memorandum of Understanding with Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution
Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) for the gradational Jetty I and II in New
Delhi.
- With the up gradation of the
coal jetties, TANGEDCO will be able to handle additional volume of coal
cargo for the upcoming new power plants in Uppur and Kadaladi in
Ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu.
- The project is the outcome of
Ministry of Shipping’s Project Unnati, under which a study, ‘Unlocking
National Ports Potential’ was done to improve the handling capacity of
CJ-I & II.
Telangana hosted first Videsh Sampark
- Telangana has hosted the first
outreach programme of the Ministry of External Affairs ‘Videsh Sampark’,
to engage the State governments to create awareness about various
programmes of the Ministry.
- The conference was held on May
13 in Hyderabad which was inaugurated by the Minister of State for
External Affairs, Gen. V.K. Singh.
Rajnath Singh inaugurates National Platform
on Disaster Risk Reduction
- The Union Home Minister Shri
Rajnath Singh inaugurated the two-day second meeting of National Platform
for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) in New Delhi.
- The theme of the Second meeting
of NPDRR is “Disaster Risk Reduction for Sustainable Development: Making
India resilient by 2030”.
- The NPDRR is a
multi-stakeholders National Platform headed by the Union Home Minister and
it promotes participatory decision making in disaster management, and
strengthens federal policy of our country.
SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY / DEFENCE AFFAIRS
Indian Navy signs MoU with Space Application Centre
- Indian Navy and the Space
Application Centre has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Data
Sharing and Scientific cooperation in the field of Meteorology and
Oceanology.
- As per the MoU, the scientific
advancements and expertise achieved by Space Application Center (SAC)
would be synergised into the Indian Naval efforts in order to keep the
Indian Navy with rapid developments that have taken place in the field of
Environment Sciences and Satellite Data acquisition technology.
- The broad areas of cooperation
include sharing of non-confidential observational data for pre-launch
sensor calibration and post launch satellite data validation, operational
use of SAC generated weather products provisioning expertise for
installation of various satellite data processing modules.
- Space Applications Centre(SAC)
is one of the major centres of Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO).It was established in the year 1972.
SPORTS
AFFAIRS
Ramit Tandon wins maiden PSA title
- US-based Indian squash player
Ramit Tandon has won his Professional Squash Association (PSA) title r in
the SYS Open.
- Ramit defeated Kush Kumar.
- This was Tandon's third
appearance in a Professional Squash Association final.
India’s Women Cricketers Deepti Sharma and Poonam Raut sets new
World Record in One-Day Internationals
- The partnership of Deepti Sharma
and Poonam Raut scored 320 in 45.3 overs to become the world’s first pair,
to achieve a 300-run opening-wicket partnership in One-Day Internationals
(ODIs).
- The earlier best partnership for
the first wicket in men’s cricket was 286 scored by Sri Lanka’s Upul
Tharanga and Sanath Jayasuriya against England in 2006.
- Deepti Sharma’s 188 runs is now
the second highest score in women’s one-day International.
