Current Affairs Daily Updates: 9th and 10th May 2017

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Current Affairs Daily Updates: 9th and 10th May 2017
APPOINTMENTS
Indian American Nominated for Key Post in FERC
  • US President Donald Trump nominated Indian-American Neil Chatterjee as a Member of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
  • FERC is an agency responsible for overseeing America’s power grid and deciding on multibillion-dollar energy projects.
  • He is the second Indian American appointed by Donald Trump to a major regulatory position.
  • The First Indian- American Ajit Varadaraj Pai is the Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission. He was designated Chairman by President Donald J. Trump in January 2017.
Venu Rajamony appointed India’s Ambassador to Netherlands
  • Venu Rajamony appointed as India’s Ambassador to the Netherlands.
  • Rajamony will also be India’s Permanent Representative to the Organisation for Prevention of Chemical Weapons based in The Hague and cover the International Court of Justice.
  • Rajamony’s last posting abroad was as Consul General of India in Dubai from 2007 to 2010. He served as Joint Secretary, heading the Multilateral Institutions division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Finance Ministry. Rajamony has been Press Secretary to the president since August 2012.
Twitter India appoints Taranjeet Singh as Country Director
  • Twitter India has appointed Taranjeet Singh as Country Director for India.
  • Prior to this appointment, Singh was responsible for sales and marketing support for Twitter’s advertisers in India.
  • Twitter has over 319 million users globally and counts India among its top five audience markets.
  • Recently, Twitter launched its lighter version called Twitter Lite to cater to the needs of users in India.
Sohail Mahmood to be pakistan's New Envoy to India
  • A senior official of the Pakistan Foreign Service 'Sohail Mahmood' will be the new Pakistani High Commissioner in India.
  • He will replace Abdul Basit.
  • Currently, He is the Pakistan's Ambassador to Turkey.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
N'Golo Kante wins Football Writers Association award
  • N'Golo Kante voted the 2017 Footballer of the Year by the Football Writers Association(FWA)
  • He will receive the prestigious FWA award, which has been awarded since 1948, at a gala dinner in London on 18th May when the association marks its 70th anniversary.
  • Kante is a French footballer who plays as a central midfielder for English club Chelsa and France National Team.
Konkona Sen Sharma wins Best Actress, Director Award at NewYork Indian Film Festival
  • The 17th Annual NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL took place from April 30-May 7, 2017.
  • Konkona Sensharma got an award for Best director for " A Death in Gunj" and best actress for the film 'Lipstick under My Burkha".
  • The list of  other Indian Award winners for different categories are
    • Best Films - - Mukti Bhawan
    • Best Actor -  Kaladharan Malayalam film Ottayaal n Paatha
    • Best Documentary - An Insignificant Man
    • Best Screenplay - Kammatipaddam
    • Best Recordist For Final Mixed Track - Ventilator;
    • Best Gujarati Film - Wrong Side Raju;
    • Best Short Film - Aaba;
    • Best Child Actors - Colours of Innocence;
    • Special Mention - Adil Hussain (Hotel Salvation).
BANKING AFFAIRS
RBI to introduce new batches for settlement of payments through the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT)
  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will introduce new batches for settlement of payments through the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) from 10 July to ensure better service for customers.
  • The additional 11 settlement batches at half-hourly intervals will be introduced from 10 July, beginning from 8.30 am to 6.30 pm.
  • With this, the total number of half hourly settlement batches during the day will increase to 23.
  • NEFT is a widely used payment system regulated by Reserve Bank of India that allows inter - bank transfer of funds.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
Oracle signs MoU with Jharkhand for cloud-based citizen services
  • The Government of Jharkhand and Oracle signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to improve cloud-based citizen services and to make Jharkhand an attractive destination for start-ups.
  • Oracle offer its support to the state through its vast portfolio of technology solutions, including Oracle Cloud.
  • For the first time, the company has brought Oracle OpenWorld one of its most successful event to India.
India to grow at 7.7 per cent in 2018-19 - International Monetary Fund
  • As per International Monetary Fund (IMF) India's growth is expected to be 7.2 percent in the 2017-18 and 7.7 percent in 2018-19.
  • According to the report, growth in Asia to accelerate 5.5 percent in 2017 from 5.3 percent.
  • IMF is created in 1945 and is governed by and access to the 189 countries.
Edelweiss Tokio launches India's first life Insurance Product
  • Edelweiss Tokio launched India's first and the simplest life insurance product that can be bought at a point of sale (PoS).
  • Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance recently launched PoS Saral Nivesh the first product to be approved by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India's (IRDA)guidelines on point of sale life products.
  •  PoS Saral Nivesh is a non-linked, non-participating endowment life insurance plan which offers both protection and saving.
Techmagnate acquires BlogX, the largest blog conference in India
  • Techmagnate, a leading Digital Marketing Agency acquired BlogX, India’s fastest growing blog conference and networking platform for the blogging community where bloggers and content managers connect.
  • The first BlogX event took place in July 2016 in New Delhi, and since then the platform has gained heights in terms of popularity.
  • Techmagnate is a digital marketing agency that specialises Engine Optimization, PPC services, Conversion Rate Optimisation, Content Marketing, Website Designing.
IMPORTANT DAYS OBSERVED
10th May - World Migratory Bird Day
  • The World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) is observed across the world on May 10.
  • The theme for WWBD 2017 is “Their Future is Our Future – A Healthy Planet for Migratory Birds and People”.
  • This day aims to highlight the interdependence of people and nature, and more specifically people and migratory birds, as they share the same planet and the same limited resources.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Jordan, USA to Launch Major Military Exercises
  • Jordan and the United States conducted annual military exercises known as "Eager Lion" with about 7,400 troops from more than 20 nations taking part.This is the Seventh Edition.
  • Highlights of this exercise - For the first time ever a global strike mission" will be conducted by two US Air Force B-1B bomber aircraft - a long-range multi-mission bomber.Jordan and the United States conducted annual military exercises known as "Eager Lion" with about 7,400 troops from more than 20 nations taking part
  • This year Eager lion exercises the seventh so far are the largest and most complex with about 7,400 troops from more than 20 nations taking part.
India & Japan to Strengthen Defence Cooperation
  • India and Japan decided to strengthen their military cooperation and hopes to pursue a strategic partnership for ensuring regional peace and stability.
  • The Defence Minister Arun Jaitley visited Tokyo to attend the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank.
  • The Malabar trilateral exercise between Japan, the U.S. and India are supposed to be held in the Bay of Bengal from July 10.
Moon Jae-In began his five-year term as president of South Korea
  • South Korea's liberal leader Moon Jae-In took the oath as President of South Korea.
  • He is expected to strengthen the alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea and to deepen the enduring friendship and partnership between two countries.
  • Moon, of the Democratic Party, took 41.1 percent of the votes, far ahead of Conservative Hong Joon-Pyo, his closest rival on 24.03 percent.
  • Moon Jae-In replaced Park Geun-Hye.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
ONGC Videsh produces record 12.6 million tonnes of Crude oil in 2016- 2017
  • The overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC Videsh Limited ) produced a record 12.6 million tonnes of crude oil and equivalent gas from its assets abroad in 2016-2017.
  • The output was up from 8.92 million tonnes of oil and equivalent gas in 2015- 2016.
Haryana Government announces Every House to get Smart ID
  • The teams of Saksham and e-Numerator would visit houses to feed their GPS location in tablets and create smart house IDs online and link each house with biometric in Haryana.
  • During the survey, the address of each house, IFSC code and Aadhaar and personal details such as mobile number, e-mail ID, educational qualification, religion and other details would be gathered.
  • The state government would make sure that benefits of 150 services and 87 departments are provided online through this data.
  • The unemployed youth would be provided employment through this survey under Saksham Yojana.
Central Government Sets Up Task Force for Reliable Employment Data
  • The central government set up a task force headed by NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya to come up with a methodology to generate timely and reliable employment data.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally initiated the project and directed the task force to submit its recommendations at the earliest.
  • The other members of the task force are labour secretary M. Sathiyavathy, secretary of the statistics department T.C.A. Ananth, NITI - Aayog’s Pulak Ghosh and Manish Sabharwal, chairman and co-founder of staffing firm Teamlease Services Ltd.
  • India’s labour market constitutes of over 470 million people. According to Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL) around 18 million people enter the workforce every year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the digital filing system at Supreme Court in New Delhi
  • The Supreme Court has taken its first step towards becoming a paperless, digital court.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the digital filing system function in New Delhi where the Integrated Case Management Information System(ICMIS) will be connected with the Supreme Court website.
  • ICMIS will help litigants access data and obtain information about the filing, delays etc. It would pave way for the integration of all courts in the country.
  • The event attended by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and judges of the apex court.
Union Government approves Under Ground Metro Extension from Najafgarh
  • The Union Government has approved the underground metro extension from Najafgarh to Dhansa Bus stand in the next three years at a cost of Rs 565 crores.
  • The Central government will provide Rs 107 crore and Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will contribute Rs 323 crore.
  • Najafgarh-Dhansa Bus stand Metro Extension is estimated to the travel needs of an additional 10,000 passengers daily.
DIPAM launches online Investor Facilitation Platform
  • The Finance Ministry has set up an "Investor Facilitation Platform" that will provide information about stocks of public sector units.
  • The platform set up by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) is an interactive forum for all stakeholders, including investors, investment banks, law firms, public sector units and administrative ministries that are involved in stake sales.
  • It is developed and maintained by PRIME Database.
  • PRIME Database is India's first and still the only database dedicated to the primary capital market covering fund raising by the Indian corporate sector and the Government through equity, debt or securitization, in India or abroad.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY / DEFENCE AFFAIRS
Indian Railways to acquire EoTT Equipments to run Trains without Guards
  • The Indian Railways has planned to acquire the End of Train Telemetry (EoTT) equipment to run nearly 1,000 trains without guards.
  • The EoTT system is designed in such a way that it will perform the guard’s job.
  • EoTT system comprises two units, namely, ‘cab display unit’ (CDU) which is fitted on the locomotive and ‘sense and brake unit’ (SBU) and both will be connected to radio transmitter send signals at regular intervals to the last coach to ensure that the train is running intact.
  • The EoTT device will cost approximately Rs 10 lakh.
SPORTS AFFAIRS
Jhulan Goswami becomes world's highest wicket-taker in Women's ODIs
  • Jhulan Goswami becomes the highest wicket-taker in Women's one-day internationals (ODI).
  • She now has 181 wickets in 153 matches at an average of 21.76.
  • She achieved the feat during the ongoing Women’s Quadrangular Series in South Africa.
  • She has broken the world record held by Australia fast bowler Cathryn Fitzpatrick who has taken 180 wickets.