Current Affairs Update – 29th July, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 29th July, 2015. These are important for the upcoming IBPS RRB Exam 2015.

India
India signed Loan
Agreement of $300 Million with ADB for National Urban Health Mission
  • India on 28 July 2015 signed a loan agreement of 300 million
    US dollars with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for its flagship programme
    National Urban Health Mission (NUHM). The main of the NUHM is to improve the
    health status of the country’s urban population.
  • The agreement was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary,
    Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of India and M.
    Teresa Kho, Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission on behalf of ADB.
  • The loan agreement is titled Supporting National Urban
    Health Mission and it seeks to reinforce ongoing government efforts under the
    NUHM to develop health systems in urban areas that can deliver quality health
    services to the urban poor and vulnerable.
  • Further, it will focus on strengthening primary health care
    and also promote better coordination between health and urban sectors and
    opportunities for public-private partnerships.

Key points of NUHM
  • It seeks to cover all 779 cities with a population of above
    50000 and all the district and state headquarters (irrespective of the
    population size)
  • It provides for Mahila Arogya Samitis for promotion of
    access to improved health care at household level on the lines of Mahila Bachat
    Gat scheme in Maharashtra
  • It seeks to reduce Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) by 40 percent
    (in urban areas) and National Urban IMR down to 20 per 1000 live births by 2017
  • It also aims to reduce Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) by 50
    percent by 2017

Gujarat becomes first
Indian state to make voting compulsory in local body polls

  • Gujarat government issued a notification in Ahmedabad on
    making voting compulsory for people of the state during elections to local self
    governing bodies.
  • Incidentally, the bill was introduced when Prime Minister Narendra
    Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat.
  • The notification would mean that people have to compulsorily
    vote from now onwards during elections held for municipal corporations,
    municipalities, and all village panchayats.
  • The Act has also made provisions to penalise those who fail
    to vote. However, the notification issued today has not specified what
    punishment would be meted out to voters who fail to exercise their franchise.

Awards
& Honors –
Sanjeev Chaturvedi,
Anshu Gupta win Ramon Magsaysay Award

  • The Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award
    Foundation (RMAF) on 29 July 2015 announced the Ramon Magsaysay awardees for
    the year 2015.
  • Among the five awardees who will be conferred with the
    so-called Asia’s Nobel Prize, there are two Indians, namely Sanjiv Chaturvedi
    and Anshu Gupta.
  • The awards will be presented on 31 August 2015 at Manila,
    Philippines.

List of Awardees
  1. Sanjiv Chaturvedi,
    India:
    He was awarded for Emergent Leadership for his exemplary integrity,
    courage and tenacity in uncompromisingly exposing and painstakingly
    investigating corruption in public office. He is an Indian Forest Service
    officer and currently the deputy secretary of All India Institute of Medical
    Sciences (AIIMS). He also served as a Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) at AIIMS
    during 2012-14.
  2. Anshu Gupta, India:
    He was recognized for his creative vision in transforming the culture of giving
    in India and his enterprising leadership in treating cloth as a sustainable
    development resource for the poor. He founded Goonj in 1999, which is a
    non-governmental organisation based in Delhi and works in 21 states across
    India in disaster relief, humanitarian aid and community development.
  3. Kommaly Chanthavong,
    Laos:
    She was recognized for her fearless, indomitable spirit to revive and
    develop the ancient Laotian art of silk weaving, creating livelihoods for
    thousands of poor, war-displaced Laotians, and thus preserving the dignity of
    women and her nation’s priceless silken cultural treasure.
  4. Ligaya
    Fernando-Amilbangsa, the Philippines:
    She was recognized for her
    single-minded crusade in preserving the endangered artistic heritage of
    southern Philippines, and in creatively propagating a dance form that
    celebrates and deepens the sense of shared cultural identity among Asians.
  5. Kyaw Thu, Myanmar:
    He was recognized for his generous compassion in addressing the fundamental
    needs of both the living and the dead in Myanmar — regardless of their class
    or religion — and his channeling personal fame and privilege to mobilize many
    others toward serving the greater social good.

Days
International Tiger
Day observed across the world

  • International Tiger Day was observed across the world on 29
    July 2015. The day is observed every year since 2010 to promote the protection
    and expansion of the wild tiger habitats and to gain support through awareness
    for tiger conservation.
  • In last 100 years, world has lost 97 percent of all wild
    tigers. The tiger count has fallen from 100000 in 1913 to 3274 in 2013 to 3200
    in 2014.
  • Tigers lost 93% of their natural habitat due to the
    expansion of cities and agriculture by humans. Besides, human-wildlife conflict
    and climate change also has been responsible for decline in tiger population
    and loss of habitat.

World Hepatitis Day
observed with theme ‘Prevent hepatitis. Act now’

  • World Hepatitis Day was observed across the world on 28 July
    2015 with the theme Prevent hepatitis. Act now. The day acts as a significant
    global platform for raising awareness about hepatitis and influence real change
    in disease prevention, testing and treatment.
  • The theme highlights the fact that infection through
    transmission can be prevented through proven and effective interventions. It is
    important for everyone to be aware of hepatitis and to learn how they can
    protect themselves from being infected.
  • The observance of the day in 2015 focuses particularly on
    Hepatitis B and C. These two combined cause approximately 80 percent of all
    liver cancer deaths and kill close to 1.4 million people every year.

Sports
Justice Mahajan
Committee constituted for Re-drafting National Sports Development Code of India
  • Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on 28 July 2015
    constituted a Working Group on re-drafting National Sports Development Code of
    India (NSDCI). The aim of constituting the working group is to make the NSDCI
    more relevant from both sports governance and legal angles.
  • The nine-member Working Group will be headed by Justice CK
    Mahajan (retd.), Former Judge of Delhi High Court.

Obituaries
Dr. Suniti Solomon,
pioneering Indian HIV/AIDS researcher, passed away

  • The pioneering Indian HIV/AIDS researcher Dr. Suniti Solomon
    died at her residence in Chennai on 28 July 2015. She died due to cancer and
    was 76.
  • She was the first person in India who documented the
    nation’s first HIV/AIDS case in 1986 and later set up Y R Gaitonde Centre for
    AIDS Research and Education (YRG CARE) – the first voluntary testing and
    counseling center for the disease.
  • In 1986, Dr Solomon, then a microbiologist at Madras Medical
    College, made headlines for discovering HIV/AIDS cases in six blood samples
    collected from female sex workers lodged at the government home on Kutchery
    Road in Mylapore in Chennai.

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