Current Affairs Update – 20th July, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit . Here are the important Current Affairs for 20th July, 2016. These are important for the upcoming SBI PO Mains and UBI PO PGDBF 2016 Exams.

• State Bank of India (SBI), the
  country’s largest lender, as part of its ongoing stressed asset resolution
  process, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Brookfield Asset
  Management Inc to collaborate on investments in stressed assets by forming a
  joint venture.
• SBI and Brookfield propose to
  form a joint venture (JV), whereby Brookfield will commit approximately Rs.
  7,000 crore and SBI up to 5 per cent of total investments into stressed assets.
• Brookfield is a leading global
  alternative asset manager with over $240 billion of assets under management.
• The proposed joint venture will
  independently evaluate and invest in various stressed assets, and will rely
  upon Brookfield’s operational expertise to manage recapitalised businesses. The
  proposed joint venture may, at a later stage, seek participation from other lenders
  in the identified assets.
• SBI Chairman Arundhati
  Bhattacharya expressed optimism that this approach of collaborating with global
  players would enable the banks in general and SBI, in particular, to find an
  alternate solution for resolution of stressed assets.
• She opined that such an approach
  would be more acceptable to both lenders and borrowers in cases where the
  promoters are not able to infuse funds and lenders are reluctant to take
  additional exposure.

• Indian Railway Catering and
  Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and the country’s largest public sector bank, State
  Bank of India (SBI), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to hammer
  out a detailed plan for promotion of rail ticketing activities, including
  internet ticketing and unreserved ticketing system.
• Under the MoU, signed on Monday,
  the signatories “will jointly explore areas of cooperation and draw up a
  detailed plan for promotion of rail ticketing activities.”
• IRCTC, a ‘mini Ratna’ PSU of
  Indian Railways which handles catering, tourism and Internet ticketing
  activities, and the SBI will also undertake development of Unreserved Ticketing
  System and “such other services which can be jointly undertaken”.
• In addition, both parties will
  offer services jointly, subject to financial viability.

• US technology giant Cisco said
  that it has have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Government of
  Jharkhand to enhance the IT skills of students of Engineering Colleges and
  Polytechnics across the State.
• The partnership will focus on
  developing skills required for the new digital economy by providing them with
  the required technical knowledge through Cisco Networking Academy Program.
• Cisco will setup up to 15
  networking academies in the State that will train up to 6000 students by 2020.
  The MoU was signed by Ajoy Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Higher &
  Technical Education, Government of Jharkhand and Dinesh Malkani, President,
  Cisco India & SAARC.

• The Odisha government on
  Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the World Trade
  Centre (WTC) to promote and strengthen export activities.
• Odisha Small Industries
  Corporation (OSIC) of the state government signed the MoU with WTC, Mumbai.
• Micro, Small and Medium
  Enterprises (MSME) Minister Jogendra Behera said Odisha has a huge potential to
  become a leader in various products and services.
• The state government had formed
  OSIC for providing export marketing and service support to the MSE
  entrepreneurs of the state.

• The NITI Aayog on 19 July 2016
  signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) with Intel India to start the Atal Tinkering
  Laboratories (ATL) initiative as a part of its flagship programme Atal
  Innovation Mission (AIM).
• The aim of setting up Atal
  Tinkering Laboratories is to build relevant skill sets among youngsters and to
  provide access to technology that will enable solutions.

• These laboratories intend to
  impact 250000 youth with innovation skills & skills for the future across
  500 communities & schools.
• The initiative will enable the
  creation of millions of child innovators who will bloom into young
  entrepreneurs, thus enabling India’s unprecedented growth.
• Intel will co-lead the creation
  and management of ten ATLs as State Hubs.
• Intel will support NITI Aayog in
  building capacities of mentors and developing linkages with Maker ecosystem for
  quality improvement of projects made by youth, facilitating ideation, design
  thinking.
• Intel will co-lead an innovation
  festival which reaches out to 500000 young innovators.

• India’s contestant Rohit
  Khandelwal won the coveted Mister World 2016 title on 19 July 2016. The grand
  finale of Mr World 2016 was held at the Southport Theatre & Convention
  Centre in Southport, U.K.
• With this, Khandelwal has become
  the first Indian and Asian to win the Mr World title at the competition.
• Mr World 2014 Nicklas Pedersen
  passed on the title to Khandelwal. He also won a cash prize of 50000 US dollar.
• Puerto Rico’s Fernando Alberto
  Alvarez Soto was named the first runner-up and Aldo Esparza Ramirez of Mexico was
  named the second runner-up.

• Advay Ramesh, a Class 10 student
  from Chennai, on 19 July 2016 won the prestigious Google Community Impact Award
  from Asia, a theme based award part of Google Science Fair 2016.
• Ramesh bagged the award for
  creating a device that enhances fishermen’s safety and productivity.
• Ramesh’s FishErmen Lifeline
  Terminal (FELT) hand-held terminal uses the Standard Position Services (SPS),
  an open service without encryption provided by the Indian Regional Navigation
  Satellite System, to enhance fishermen’s safety and productivity at the sea.
• The 14-year-old Ramesh is also
  among 20 finalists shortlisted to compete for a 50000 US dollar scholarship
  from Google.

• Nigerian journalist Didi
  Akinyelure on 19 July 2016 won the BBC World Service News Komla Dumor Award for
  2016.
• Akinyelure is the second
  recipient of the award, which was established to honour Ghanaian BBC World News
  presenter Komla Dumor.
• The Award aims to celebrate
  African journalism and reward exceptional talent.
• Ugandan news anchor Nancy
  Kacungira was the winner of the first BBC World News Komla Dumor Award.

• Beverages company Coca-Cola on 19
  July 2016 appointed Sarvita Sethi as the new Vice-President (Finance) for India
  and South West Asia.
• Sethi took the charge from
  Sanjeev Kumar, who is moving to Lagos as Director-Finance for Coca-Cola West
  Africa. He will also be heading company’s finance operations for 31 countries.
• Sethi will be reporting to
  Coca-Cola India and South West Asia President Venkatesh Kini.
• The India and South West Asia
  Business Units of The Coca-Cola Company includes India, Nepal, Bhutan,
  Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
• Before being appointed as the VP
  (Finance), Sethi served as the Commercial Finance -Director for the Coca-Cola
  Central and Southern Europe business.

• Steve Elworthy, the former South
  Africa fast bowler, on 19 July 2016 was appointed the Managing Director (MD) of
  the 2019 World Cup, which will be held in England and Wales.
• In his new role, Elworthy will
  oversee the lead-up and running of the 2019 World Cup as well as the Champions
  Trophy and Women’s World Cup. The Champions Trophy and Women’s World Cup will
  be hosted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2017.
• Elworthy has previously been the
  Tournament Director for the 2007 and 2009 World T20s and the 2013 Champions
  Trophy.

• A Canadian university in July
  2016 said that it will conduct the world’s first Zika vaccine test on humans.
  The vaccine that is under development will be tested on humans in the near
  future. Until now, vaccines have been tested on mice.
• Professor Gary Kobinger of the
  Universite Laval, based in Quebec City, said that they are very proud to be
  part of the first international team in the world to complete all of the steps
  in the regulatory process for the test.
• He said that development of the
  Zika vaccine has been authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration and
  Health Canada.
• Kobinger, a doctor of
  microbiology and professor of medicine at the university, is overseeing the
  study.

• The Book titled The Great
  Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable authored by Indian novelist
  Amitav Ghosh was released on 12 July 2016.
• The book addresses the challenges
  of representing the complexity of climate change in literature and the responsibility
  of writers to document the extreme reality humans are now facing. He examines
  the inability at the level of literature, history and politics to grasp the
  scale and violence of climate change.
• Ghosh shows that the history of
  the carbon economy is a tangled global story with many contradictory and
  counterintuitive elements.

• Mohammed Shahid, one of the
  greatest names in Indian hockey, died on 20 July 2016 due to severe liver
  condition and kidney failure. He was 56.
• Shahid was the part of the Indian
  hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Regards

Team ExamPundit