Current Affairs Update – 6th April, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important current affairs of 6th April, 2015.

• Public sector lender Dena Bank has partnered with government-owned LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) of India to provide insurance cover to all Aadhaar-linked savings account holders.
• As per the terms of rush coverage, a person has to opt for the scheme every year. Account holder can also prefer to give a long term option of continuing, in which case his or her account will be auto debited every year by the bank, the statement added.
• The scheme provides insurance cover to all Aadhar linked savings account holders in the age group of 18-50 years . After enrollment, coverage will be available up to 55 years of age for existing members.
• The scheme will come into effect from June 1, 2015.
• Earlier, Corporation Bank tied up with LIC.

• Aiming to boost bilateral business ties, industry bodies from India and Turkey today signed agreements here.
• To achieve the objective, Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) signed separate pacts with industry bodies CII and FICCI.
• The Ficci-TOBB agreement is for establishing India-Turkey Working Committee to identify obstacles in trade and economic cooperation. The two organisations will also co-host and organise Investment Forums to promote investment opportunities both in India and Turkey.
• TOBB President Rifat Hisarciklioglu said that Turkey could open markets of North Africa, Middle East and Eurasia to India which would supplement its quest for new markets.
• Under the MoU between TOBB and CII, both parties agreed to take all such steps as may be necessary and feasible to promote bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.
• These include undertaking studies to determine support which might benefit their respective members and exchange of information on all economic and commercial matters with regards to Turkey and India including specific industrial sectors relevant to both the countries.

• Myntra will shut its website from May 1 to become a mobile app-based retailer.
• Fashion retail website Myntra is expected to shut down its website in favour of moving all operations to its mobile app, according to a report in The Times of India. Myntra was acquired by Flipkart last year for a sum of Rs 2,000 crores.
• The report states that Myntra pulls in about 80% of its traffic and 60% of sales through its mobile application. It has plans to take the sales number to 90% by the end of the year. When that happens, the fashion e-tailer will most likely shut down its websites according to sources familiar with the matter. If it does indeed happen, it will be the first instance of an online e-tailer going mobile-only from web + mobile format.
• Myntra is on course to complete Rs 2,000 crore in sales or gross merchandise value (GMV) for the current financial year. GMV refers to the overall revenue generated by online retailers through sale of goods on the online platforms. Out of the total GMV, the e-tailer makes around 5% to 20% depending on the category.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 6 April 2015 launched a National Air Quality Index (NAQI) to tackle the menace of air pollution. This National Air Quality Index will provide information on the quality of air in 10 major cities in the country on a real-time basis.
• The ten cities where the quality of air can be monitored are Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad.
• Later the index will be extended to 22 State capitals and 44 other cities with a population exceeding one million.
• The index was launched before the inauguration of the Conference of State Environment and Forest Ministers in New Delhi. The conference is being attended by state environment and forest ministers.
• The national conference aims at consulting states on making changes in existing laws that govern environment and forest clearances.

• Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday launched the country's first indigenously-built Scorpene submarine at the Mazagaon Dockyard Ltd in Mumbai.
• The Scorpene is part of the ambitious Project 75 of Indian Navy's submarine programme, undertaken with French collaboration, which will include six such vessels joining the fleet over the next few years.
• Parikkar, along with Chief Of Naval Staff Admiral R.K. Dhowan, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and others officials attended a puja ceremony to mark the auspicious undocking of the vessel.
• The submarine is expected to be commissioned by September 2016.
• Presently, Indian Navy has 14 conventional diesel-electric powered submarines which include 10 Russian Kilo Class and four German HDW class vessels.
• Parikkar is in the city to review the progress of Project 75 programme undertaken by the Western Naval Command and is likely to get a status report on the Project 15 B-Class stealth destroyers being constructed at MDL.

• India will host the fifth meeting of SAARC health ministers next week to deliberate on key issues including HIV/AIDS, prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases and to strengthen collaborations amongst the nations.
• The health ministers will also discuss adoption of the the "Delhi Declaration" affirming their commitment to work together in identified areas and further strengthen health collaboration with agreed road map and timelines, in the meeting scheduled to take place on April 8.
• Prior to the Health Ministers' meeting, the 7th Meeting of SAARC Expert Group on HIV/AIDS, 5th Meeting of the SAARC Technical Committee on Health and Population and the 5th Meeting of the SAARC Senior Officials (Health Secretaries) will be held on April 6-7.
• The 4th meeting of the SAARC Health Ministers was held at Maldives in April 2012.

• After being stuck in legal and administrative hurdles for the past two years, the proposed BR Ambedkar memorial at Indu Mill, Dadar, got a major push after a tri-partite agreement was signed between the Union ministry of textile, government of Maharashtra and the National Textile Corporation (NTC) on Sunday.
• The agreement was signed at New Delhi in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union minister of state for textiles Santosh Gangwar and state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
• Fadnavis said the foundation stone for the memorial will be laid by Modi in a few weeks.
• The Maharashtra government said it will decide on the compensation to be paid to the NTC, the owner of the land, in the next 15 days. However, it is yet to be cleared if the NTC will be compensated in form of land or otherwise.
• According to the sources in the Mantralaya, the government may transfer land, equivalent to the price of the one to be acquired at the Indu Mill, elsewhere in the state.

• M Annadurai, senior scientist and programme director, Indian Remote Sensing Satellites (IRS) and Small Satellite Systems (SSS) of ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bengaluru, has assumed the office of Director, ISAC on April 1.
• He took over as Director, ISAC from S K Shivakumar, who superannuated on March 31, 2015. Annadurai, born on July 2, 1958, graduated in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, obtained his Post Graduate degree in Applied Electronics from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore and Doctoral degree from Anna University, Coimbatore.
• Joining ISRO in 1982, Annadurai began his career at ISAC as the team leader to design and develop Software Satellite Simulator. During the period 1992 -2005, Annadurai was the lead member of ISRO’s satellite mission team and managed eight INSAT Missions as the Mission Director and brought about the efficient ground automation for satellite operations.

• P.G. Jayakumar has laid down office as Managing Director and CEO of the Kerala-based Dhanlaxmi Bank on Monday. He took charge as MD & CEO three years ago.
• G. Sreeram, who was Chief General Manager, Canara Bank, Mumbai Circle, is succeeding him.
• Jayakumar rose from the cadre to the highest office and served the bank for more than 37 years in various capacities including Branch Head, Zonal Head, and General Manager in charge of HR, Administration, Credit, Risk Management, and Treasury.
• He assumed charge as MD & CEO at a crucial juncture after the exit of Amitabh Chaturvedi.
• The bank, during Jayakumar’s period, raised capital funds of ₹521crore. This helped it comply with the regulatory capital adequacy requirements. The bank underwent total reorganisation as a customer-focused branch-centric model and a series of customer-friendly products and technology services were introduced, a press release said.

• Rajeev Shukla was, on Monday, reappointed chairman of the powerful Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council. Former Union Minister and Congress leader Shukla was the IPL chairman till 2013 when he resigned from the post in the aftermath of the IPL ‘spot-fixing’ scandal.
• After intense speculation over who will take charge of the league with former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, Ajay Shirke and Ranjib Biswal being the others in the fray, Mr. Shukla ultimately emerged as a consensus candidate. His appointment came just one day before opening ceremony of the IPL-8 in Kolkata.
• Sourav Ganguly was a new entrant to the IPL Governing Council while the senior national selection committee led by Sandeep Patil was retained for another season. Team India Director Ravi Shastri also remained in the IPL Governing Council.
• Another former captain Anil Kumble has been retained as chairman of the Technical committee while Congress leader and MPCA top boss Jyotiraditya Scindia will head the powerful finance committee.
• Chetan Desai of Goa will head the Marketing Committee while Gokaraju Gangaraju of Andhra will be in-charge of the Tours and Programmes Committee.

• Pedro Cateriano Bellido was appointed as the seventh Prime Minister of Peru on 2 April 2015. He was appointed by the President Ollanta Humala in a ceremony held at the Government Palace in Lima, Peru.
• He replaced Ana Jara, who was sacked on 30 March 2015 after losing the vote of confidence in Congress. She was sacked by Peruvian Congress amid allegations of spying and corruption.
• At the time of this appointment, 56-year-old lawyer Bellido was serving as Defence Minister of Peru. He was serving as Peru’s Defence Minister since July 2012.

• Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis, the Indo-Swiss women pair of Tennis, on 5 March 2015 won the Miami Open Tennis women's doubles title. In the title clash played in Miami, Florida, the duo defeated the Russian pair of Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova, 7-5, 6-1.
• This was second consecutive team title for the Indo-Swiss pair. Earlier on 21 March 2015, Mirza and Hingis had won the Indian Wells Open.

• Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams won the 2015 Miami Open Men’s and women’s singles titles of the  respectively at Crandon Park Tennis Center in Miami, Florida.
• Novak Djokovic of Serbia on 5 April 2015 beat the third seeded Andy Murray of Britain 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-0 to win his fifth Miami Open title.
• In doing so, Djokovic became the first player to win at Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back for three consecutive years.
• With this win, Djokovic and Murray have combined to win eight of the past ten Miami Open men’s titles.
• Serene Williams of the US on 4 April 2015 defeated the twelfth seed Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-2, 6-0 to secure the title for eighth time.
• With this win, Williams has won 66 singles titles, one behind Billie Jean King of the US.

• Indian Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika won the bronze medal along with Swedish Grandmaster Pia Cramling by virtue of making it to the semifinals of World Women's chess championship here.
• Harika lost to the eventual winner Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine in the semifinals.
• Muzychuk bagged the title after defeating Russian Natalija Pogonina 2.5-1.5 in the four-game final. She had earlier defeated top seeded Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy in the quarters.
• While both Humpy and Harika got excellent chances to beat Muzychuk, the Ukrainian prevailed over them, thanks to some steely nerves.
• Against Humpy, she was looking at a hopelessly lost position in the deciding tiebreaker when the Indian played an inexplicable blunder and lost.

• A 100-year-old Japanese woman has become the world's first centenarian to complete a 1,500-metre freestyle swim.
• Mieko Nagaoka, from Yamaguchi Prefecture, took just under an hour and 16 minutes to finish the race in a 25-meter pool. She was the sole competitor in the 100 - 104-year-old category at a short course pool in Ehime, western Japan on Saturday.
• Her time is expected to be recognised by Guinness World Records after she submits an application to the international swimming federation, Japan Times reported.
• Nagaoka began swimming at the age of 80 as part of rehabilitation for her hurt knee. At that time, she could barely swim.

• Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) on 5 April 2015 won the prestigious Golden Peacock National Quality Award for the year 2015.
• The award will be presented to DIAL by the UAE Minister for Culture, Youth and Development Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan at a ceremony to be held in Dubai on 20 April 2015.
• DIAL is a joint venture consortium of GMR Group, Airports Authority of India, Fraport and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB).

• A 15-year-old Indian-origin schoolboy in the UK has been awarded the Institute of Physics Prize for conducting an experiment that verified an effect of Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity.
• Pratap Singh, a student at The Perse School, Cambridge, has won the 500 pounds Institute of Physics (IOP) prize at the Big Bang Fair held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham in March.
• The prize was among several awarded in the finals of the National Science and Engineering Competition at the fair.
• More than 200 UK students aged 11-18 competed in the finals, demonstrating their projects to thousands of visitors.
• In his experiment, Singh used two Geiger-Muller tubes to detect cosmic-ray muons, which should not reach the Earth in detectable numbers unless time dilation occurs.
• He created a mathematical model for their arrival rate with and without time dilation, and using a Raspberry Pi and some statistical analysis, showed that they follow the model predicted by Einstein's 1905 theory of special relativity.

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