national cabinet meeting chaired by narendra modi approved pradhan mantri krishi sinchayee yojana...
TRANSCRIPT
National 1. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prohibited the foreign direct investment (FDI) in
manufacturing of tobacco products.
This prohibition will be in case of manufacturing of cigars, cigarillos,
cheroots and cigarettes of tobacco or of tobacco substitutes. Henceforth
with this FDI restriction, other activities related to these products will be
governed by the sectoral restrictions laid down in the FDI policy.
2. Nationwide mobile number portability (MNP) has become operational from 3rd
July 2015. It became operational after major private mobile operators like
Vodafone, RCom, Airtel, Uninor and Idea Cellular along with state-run BSNL and
MTNL issued statements to launch MNP.
3. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognized a record created in
Madhya Pradesh on ‘World Hand washing Day’ in 2014.
4. State run telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) launched pre-
paid card linked mobile wallet service ‘Speed Pay’. It was launched by Union
Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in New Delhi. This service was launched by
BSNL has launched the service in partnership with IT company Pyro.
5. Maharashtra-government-appointed committee submitted its 12-page report
to the Bombay High Court. The report says that over 58 percent of students below
10 years of age who carries heavy school bags are suffering from orthopedic
ailments in Maharashtra.
6. Software major Microsoft agreed to develop Smart MIDC (industrial colony)
and support Digital Village in Maharashtra.
7. Union Government has launched a web portal for online submission of
applications for environment clearance by State Environment Impact Assessment
Authorities (SEIAA) for Category B projects.
8. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on 2 July 2015 launched the state
Portal ePMS (Electronic Projects Management System) to fast track infrastructural
development.
9. India launched online registration system named eMigrate system
(www.emigrate.gov.in) for foreign employers (FEs) who wants to recruit Indian
workers, including nurses. Under the system, FEs will have to register in the
eMigrate system.
10. The Union Cabinet approved the institutional framework for the National Skill
Development Mission 2015.
The Mission will provide a strong institutional framework at the Centre
and States for implementation of skilling activities in the country.
11. Passengers will be able to log on to the Wi-Fi service at prominent railway
stations of South East Central Railway zone, including Raipur, with the facility
likely to be installed at these places by next year.
12. Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Narendra Modi approved Pradhan Mantri
Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) or PM’s Agriculture Irrigation Scheme.
13. Union Cabinet has approved setting up of an Online National Agriculture
Market that will provide more options to farmers for selling their produce.
14. The population of elephants has increased to 1,954 in Odisha as per revealed
in 2015 Elephant Census report.
15. Madhya Pradesh government has initiated the facility of e-registration of
property documents in all the districts of state.
The e-registration of property documentation will be done through
software named Sampada.
Under this facility, people can obtain e-stamp through internet banking
or service provider.
16. Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu inaugurated the Integrated Security
System (ISS) at 6 railway stations in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
17. The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development adopted the ‘Digital
Guddi-Gudda Board’ as a Best Practice under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP)
scheme. It was named as the best practice on the occasion of Digital India Week
that is being observed from 1 July to 7 July 2015.
18. The Haryana Government launched the Mhara Gaon- Jagmag Gaon scheme,
aimed at providing 24 hour uninterrupted power supply to rural domestic
consumers in a phased manner with their active participation.
19. Maharashtra Government’s program Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan that was
launched with an aim to make Maharashtra a drought-free state by 2019 was in
news in first week of July 2015.
The Abhiyan came in news as Rajasthan government is planning to
replicate the program in the state.
20. To provide security to those devotees taking part in the 59-day-long annual
Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir, Indian Army launched Operation Shiva.
The Yatra started on 2 July 2015.
International 1. Greece has become the first developed nation to default on International
Monetary Fund (IMF) debt. It has defaulted on a 1.7 billion dollars payment to
IMF.
2. A 15-year-old boy named Byron Wake has become Britain’s youngest ‘cyborg’
i.e. part-human, part machine.
He achieved this feat after inserting xNT microchip under the skin using
hypodermic syringe. The chip is the size of a grain of rice and is encased in
bio-safe glass.
3. Facebook has changed its logo, now this might seem as a big news but the
visual change is not that apparent. On the other hand, WSJ has reported that the
change signifies a huge shift within the company.
4. China’s state-run power company, Three Gorges Corporation (CTG), is keen to
participate in a financing consortium to fund up to $50 billion of hydroelectric
power projects in Pakistan.
Sports 1. Chile won South America’s most prestigious football trophy, the Copa America
title 2015 for the first time. It is Chile’s first ever international trophy in Football.
2. Defending champions India have retained the South Asian Basketball
Championship (SABA) title. It was the 4th edition of the Championships.
3. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain won 2015 British Grand Prix of
Formula One (F1). This was his fourth victory of the season and his second of
British Grand Prix.
4. India won the South Asian Basketball (SABA) Championship title. In the final
played at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru, Karanataka, India defeated Sri
Lanka 93-44.
5. Former world junior champion and Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta won the 19th
Commonwealth Chess Championship.
Mergers & Acquisition 1. Mahindra Defense Systems Limited, a subsidiary of Mahindra Group and Airbus
Helicopter have inked pact to form a joint venture (JV) company to produce
helicopters in India.
2. Leading mobile wallet MobiKwik tied up with books and stationary retailer
WHSmith India to enable offline shopping at all its retail stores.
With this tie-up, WHSmith India stores will also serve as MobiKwik
Nodes where users can load money on their MobiKwik wallet.
3. E-commerce giant Flipkart today announced a strategic partnership with three
of the country’s largest home retail brands–Home Town (Future group),
HomeStop and @Home.
The tie-ups will introduce a whole new range of products from these
retail brands, adding to Flipkart’s existing portfolio of 1000 plus brands
with seven lakh home products.
4. Online payment firm PayPal will acquire digital money transfer services
provider Xoom for about $890 million in an all cash deal as it eyes to enter the
burgeoning global money remittances market.
Awards & Recognition 1. Four Indian-Americans have been honored with prestigious Great Immigrants,
The Pride of America award 2015.
They are among 38 distinguished personalities from more than 30 countries
around the world who have been honored with this year’s award.
4 Indian-Americans are Preet Bharara:
US Attorney, Southern District of New York.
Rakesh Khurana: Dean of Harvard College and Marvin Bower Professor
of Leadership and Development.
Madhulika Sikka: Vice President and Executive Editor of .Mic.
Abraham Verghese: Physician, Professor and Author.
2. Fazle Hasan Abed of Bangladesh has been named as the winner of the 2015
World Food Prize.
He is founder and chairman of Bangladesh-based non-governmental
organisation (NGO) BRAC (originally known as Bangladesh Rural
Advancement Committee) which is world’s largest NGO.
3. R Paul Singh, Indian-American professor has been selected for 2015 World
Agriculture Prize laureate.
4. Darshan Jain, an Indian-American teacher has been selected for prestigious
Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
5. Prof. Sanjeev Galande has been selected for the prestigious G D Birla Award for
Scientific Research 2014.
He has been selected for his significant contribution and his pioneering
research in the field of Epigenetics and Molecular Cell Biology.
About G.D. Birla Award
Established: 1991 by the K. K. Birla Foundation in the honour of
philanthropist Ghanshyam Das Birla.
The award is given Indian scientist below the age of 50, living and
working in India for his outstanding scientific research, mostly during the
past 5 years.
Cash Prize: It carries a cash prize of 50 lakh rupees and a citation.
Appointments 1. Commodore C D Balaji (Retd) took charge as the Director of the Aeronautical
Development Agency (ADA) and Program Director of the Light Combat Aircraft
(LCA).
2. Jasper InfoTech, which owns and operates online marketplace Snapdeal.com,
has named Amit Choudharyas its senior vice-president – Corporate Finance, the
New Delhi-headquartered.
3. Takema Sakamoto will head the India operations of Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) as its Chief Representative for the country.
4. BNP Paribas named Joris Dierckx as Country Head for India and Chief Executive
of BNP Paribas SA, Indian branches.
5. Chandrasekaran Ramakrishnan was appointed as Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
of India’s biggest auto maker Tata Motors’ Group with immediate effect.
6. The board of Housing.com sacked the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-
founder Rahul Yadav with immediate effect.
7. U P Singh was appointed as the Interim Chairman and Managing Director
(CMD) of state-run Oil India Limited.
8. Anisa Rasouli, the head of the Afghan Women Judges Association and a former
juvenile court judge, was nominated as the first ever female Supreme Court judge
of Afghanistan.
9. Jasper Infotech, which owns and operates online marketplace Snapdeal.com,
has named former Bharti Airtel senior executive Govind Rajan, as its chief strategy
officer, the New Delhi-headquartered company announced on Monday.
10. London-based steel baron L N Mittal has joined the governing board of St
Xavier’s College in Kolkata where from he had done his graduation.
11. KV Kamath has relinquished his position as non-executive chairman of ICICI
Bank to take over as the head of BRICS' New Development Bank (NDB).
12. Twitter India has appointed Mahima Kaul its Public Policy head.
Economics 1. World Bank has approved an additional loan of 650 million dollars for India’s
Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) Project.
2. National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) survey has pegged literacy rate in the
rural areas at 71 per cent and 86 per cent in the urban areas in year 2014.
3. The cost of printing one rupee note, which was recently re-introduced after a
gap of 20 years, is Rs 1.14, more than its value, an RTI query has revealed.
Science & Technology 1. The death toll from Ebola virus in Liberia is on the rise once again after three
new confirmed cases were reported. Earlier in May 2015, the World Health
Organization (WHO) had declared the West African country Ebola free after no
new cases were reported.
2. Scientists discovered that the Interleukin-21 (IL-21) protein plays an important
role in limiting replication of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) in infected
humans.
3. For the first time scientists have identified two promising drug candidates for
the treatment of deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus.
About Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)
MERS belongs to the family of coronaviruses which includes large family
of viruses such as common cold and Severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS).
It was discovered in 2012 and was mostly centred in Saudi Arabia.
Source: MERS is a beta coronavirus derived from bats.
Camels have shown to have antibodies to MERS, but the exact source of
infection in camels has not been identified.
Transmission: It can be transmitted from infected person to others after
close contact via a respiratory route.
It spread’s in droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Symptoms: fever, breathing problems, pneumonia and kidney failure.
Treatment: Till date there is no vaccine available to prevent it. However
intensive medical care can help patient to breath.
Death 1. Pakistani Urdu novelist Abdullah Hussain passed away in Lahore due to blood
cancer. He was 84.
2. Renowned US actress and model Diana Douglas passed away in Los Angeles
due to cancer. She was 92.
3. K P P Nambiar, founding Chairman of Kerala State Electronics Development
Corporation Limited (Keltron) died due to age-related illnesses. He was 86.
4. Finnish telecom engineer and father of messaging service (SMS) technology
Matti Makkonen passed away following serious illness. He was 63.