Current Affairs Update – 1-4th July, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs from July 1st to 4th of July, 2016. These are very important for the upcoming SBI PO Mains & UBI PO PGDBF Exams 2016.

• The Haryana Government on 2 July
  2016 announced that it would develop an industrial township in the state at an
  expense of 5 billion dollar. The new industrial township will spread in over
  1500 acres of land in Sohna and Manesar areas of Gurgaon.
• For this purpose, the Haryana
  Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) signed a
  memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China Fortune Land Development (CFLD)
  Company in New Delhi.
• Under the agreement, HSIIDC and
  CFLD Company would execute the project as a joint venture (JV).

• The Chinese firm would develop
  infrastructural facilities, industrial units and residential and commercial
  projects in the township.
• Industrial units related to
  automobiles and electronics would be established in the township.
• The project that would be
  completed in next 10 years will help in generating employment opportunities for
  lakhs of youth.

• Hotels aggregator OYO has signed
  a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Uttarakhand Tourism Development
  Board (UTDB) to develop tourism-related hospitality ecosystem in the state, a company
  statement said.
• OYO will work to make local
  homestays better equipped to suit the need of tourists and the company has
  already standardised 15 homestays registered with UTDB, the statement said,
  adding that the standardization process will be followed by listing and
  marketing these properties by OYO.

• The 2016 BRICS Youth Summit held
  in Guwahati, Assam concluded on 3 July 2016. The theme of the 2nd youth summit
  that started on 1 July 2016 was “Youth as bridge for Intra-BRICS Exchanges”.
• The three day summit saw
  participation of officials and youth of the delegation from BRICS nations,
  namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
• The summit concluded with certain
  recommendations and they are

• Create and strengthen
  apprenticeship programmes in the existing BRICS institutions
• Document and disseminate success
  stories among the BRICS nations
• Facilitate transfer of skills
  between mentors and mentees among the BRICS nations
• Ensure access to decent jobs for
  youth across the BRICS nations

• The Central Board of Direct Taxes
  (CBDT) on 30 June 2016 notified rules for calculating Fair Market Value (FMV)
  of assets located in India with regard to indirect transfer provisions as
  prescribed in Section 9(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
• Under section 9 of the Income-tax
  Act, 1961, any income arising from transfer of any share of or interest in a
  foreign company or entity that derives its value substantially from the assets
  located in India, is deemed to accrue or arise in India.

• Manner of computation of FMV of
  Indian and global assets of the foreign company or entity
• Determination of income
  attributable to assets situated in India, and
• Information required to be
  maintained and furnished by the Indian concern under section 285 of Income-tax
  Act, 1961

• The Fair Market Value of listed
  companies will be computed on the basis of a formula taking into account its
  market capitalisation, book value of liabilities and total number of shares.
• In case of an unlisted company,
  the FMV would be determined by a merchant banker or accountant as per
  internationally accepted valuation methodology.
• In case the shares are listed on
  more than one recognised stock exchange, the price will be computed with
  reference to recognised stock exchange which records the highest volume of
  trading in share.
• The share or interest is said to
  derive it value substantially from assets located in India, if FMV of assets
  located in India comprise at least 50 percent of FMV of total assets of the
  company or entity.
• A share or interest is to be
  deemed to derive value substantially from assets located in India, if the FMV
  of the Indian asset is more than 10 crore rupees.

• The first meeting of the BRICS
  Working Group on Energy Saving and Energy Efficiency commenced on 4 July 2016
  in Visakhapatnam. The meeting will be concluded on 5 July 2016.
• The two-day meeting will be
  attended by all 5 members of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South
  Africa) countries.
• The Union Power Ministry is
  hosting the meeting of the Working Group.
• India assumed the BRICS chair for
  2016 and will accordingly shape and steer the BRICS agenda.

• The BRICS countries will make
  presentations on measures taken by them in the field of energy saving and
  energy efficiency.
• India will showcase its efforts
  in energy saving, energy efficiency.
• India, in particular, will
  showcase the LED street lighting programme and Performance Achievement &
  Trade (PAT) programme for Industrial energy efficiency.
• The Working Group on Energy
  Saving and Energy Efficiency will deliberate on a Work Plan on development of
  cooperation in energy saving and energy efficiency within BRICS.
• During the meeting, a Joint
  Statement will be agreed upon. The statement will be a guiding tool for the
  BRICS Working Group on Energy Saving and Energy Efficiency.

• The Railways Minister Suresh Prabhakar
  Prabhu on 30 June 2016 launched NIVARAN portal, an online system for redressal
  of service related grievance of serving current and former railway employees.
• The Portal is developed by CRIS,
  the IT arm of Indian Railways, on the basis of process designed by
  Establishment directorate of Railway Board which deals with staff matters.

• This new initiative is a portal
  for the internal Grievance Redressal of Railway Employees & Former Railway
  Employees.
• It facilitates the employees to
  lodge their grievances and also monitor their progress.
• The system would also provide
  facility for lodging appeal to the higher authority in case the decision is not
  found satisfactory.

• The Market Research Division of
  Ministry of Tourism on 30 June 2016 released data on domestic and foreign
  tourist visits to States and Union Territories (UTs) for the year 2015.
• The Ministry compiled the data received
  from Departments of Tourism of various State Governments and UT
  Administrations.

• The number of Domestic Tourist
  Visits (DTVs) to the States and UTs was 1432 million. The number was 1282.8 million
  in 2014. Therefore, 2015 registered a growth of 11.63% over 2014.
• The State that topped the list of
  the top ten States in terms of number of domestic tourist visits is Tamil Nadu
  that garnered 333.5 million domestic visits. Uttar Pradesh secured the second
  place with 204.9 million visits, while Andhra Pradesh bagged the third position
  with 121.6 million visits.
• The contribution of top 10 States
  was about 83.62% to the total number of domestic tourist visits during 2015.

• The number of Foreign Tourist
  Visits (FTVs) to the States and UTs in 2015 registered a growth of 4.4% over
  2014. India garnered 23.3 million visits in 2015 as compared to 22.3 million in
  2014.
• The State that topped the list of
  the top ten States in terms of number of FTVs during 2015 is Tamil Nadu with
  4.68 million visits. Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh secured second and third
  place with 4.41 million visits and 3.1 million visits respectively.
• The contribution of top 10 States
  was about 88.4% to the total number of FTVs in the country during 2015.

• The first squadron of home-grown
  Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas was inducted into Indian Air Force (IAF) at
  the Aircraft System Testing Establishment in Bengaluru on 1 July 2016.  The squadron has been named ‘Flying Daggers’
  45.
• State-run Hindustan Aeronautics
  Limited (HAL) handed over the first two Tejas aircraft to the Air Force.
• The aircraft will be operated for
  nearly two years by the squadron at Bengaluru before it is moved to its
  designated location at Sulur near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
• According to IAF, the idea is to
  have a total of six aircraft this financial year 2016-17 and about eight in the
  financial year 2017-18. Tejas will feature in combat plan of the IAF in 2017
  and will be deployed in forward bases also.
• All squadrons of Tejas will have
  20 planes in total, including four in reserve. As per the plan, while 20 would
  be inducted under the Initial Operational Clearance, another 20 will be
  inducted later with Beyond Visual Range Missile (BVR) and some other features.

• The Union Minister for Human
  Resource Development Smriti Zubin Irani on 30 June 2016 launched the
  Prashikshak, a teacher education portal, with a vision to strengthen District
  Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) and bring quality teachers into
  the Indian school education system.
• For now, Prashiskshak Portal
  works only for DIETs, however it will cover block level institutes in the
  future and identify gaps at the bottom of the pyramid.

• Prashikshak is a unique IT
  initiative, a first of its kind in the country, which will contain a
  comprehensive database of all DIETs in the country with all relevant
  performance indicators.
• It will help benchmark DIETs to
  enable aspiring teachers to make informed choices about their future.
• It will give the opportunity to
  Union and State Governments to do real time monitoring of the institutions.
• The major users of Prashikshak
  will be Pre-service teacher educators, DIET principals and faculty, Policy
  makers at District, State Government and National Level and the General public.
• It was established through joint
  collaboration between UnionMinistry of Human Resource Development and Central
  Square Foundation.

• A Rapid Rural Police Response
  System was launched across Punjab on 1 July 2016.
• The system was launched to ensure
  prompt and effective police response in over 12000 villages in Punjab.

• The Rapid Rural Police Response
  System was launched by Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
• 400 new motorcycles and 220 new
  Bolero jeeps were also flagged off under the new system.
• Under the system, the police will
  respond to any crime or law and order situation within 20 minutes of it being
  reported.

• Kerala government on 1 June 2016
  banned ‘electronic cigarette’. It was banned in view of studies claiming that
  its use can cause various health issues, including cancer and heart ailments.
• In this regard, the health
  ministry directed the additional chief secretary (health) to issue an order
  banning the production, sale and advertisement of ‘electronic cigarette’ alias
  ‘e-cigarette’.
• With this, Kerala became the
  fourth Indian state to ban e-cigarettes. The other three states are Punjab (1st
  state to do so), Maharashtra and Karnataka.

• RBI today said it has appointed
  Sudarshan Sen as an Executive Director in place of N S Vishwanathan, who has
  been elevated as Deputy Governor at the central bank.
• Sen has taken charge from today,
  RBI said in a release.
• Sen will look after Department of
  Banking Regulation, Department of Co-operative Bank Regulation and Department
  of Non-Banking Regulation.
• Sen is a career central banker
  and has a long association with bank supervision and regulation. Earlier, he
  was in charge of the Department of Banking Regulation.

• Linda Burney, a former teacher,
  on 2 July 2016 became the first Indigenous woman elected to the House of
  Representatives (lower house) of the Parliament of Australia. She achieved the
  fete after claiming victory in the marginal seat of Barton.
• She won the seat as a candidate
  of the centre-left Labour Party in the national polls.
• With this, she joins first
  Aboriginal MP Ken Wyatt of the conservative Liberal Party who was elected in
  2010. Olympian Nova Peris was the first indigenous woman in the upper house of
  the Parliament.

• Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as
  the Philippines’ 16th president on 30 June 2016 inside the Malacanang
  presidential palace in Manila. He will have a six-year term.
• The first Mindanaoan president of
  the country, Duterte succeeds Benigno Aquino III.

• Exercise RIMPAC 2016, the Pacific
  military exercise, began on 30 June 2016 at Hawaii with 26 nations
  participating in the war games that will cover the Hawaiian Island and southern
  California.
• The theme of RIMPAC 2016 is
  Capable, Adaptive, Partners. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series
  that began in 1971.

• Twenty-six nations, 45 ships,
  five submarines, more than 200 aircraft, and 25000 personnel will participate
  in the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise that is scheduled from 30
  June to 4 August 2016.
• This year’s exercise includes
  forces from Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France,
  Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New
  Zealand, Norway, China, Peru, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga,
  the United Kingdom and the United States.
• Hosted by US Pacific Fleet,
  RIMPAC 2016 will be led by US Vice Adm Nora Tyson, commander of the US 3rd
  Fleet (C3F), who will serve as the Combined Task Force (CTF) commander.

• The Interim Administrative Cell
  of the International Solar Alliance (ISA Cell) and the World Bank on 30 June
  2016 signed declaration to promote solar energy globally. The declaration was
  signed during the visit of the World Bank President Jim Yong Kim to India in
  June 2016.
• The declaration was signed by Upendra
  Tripathy, Secretary of Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and
  Chairperson, ISA cell and Onno Ruhl, India Country Director of the World Bank.

• Developing a roadmap to mobilize
  financing
• Developing financing instruments
  including credit enhancement, reduce hedging costs/currency risk, bond raising
  in locally denominated currencies etc. which support solar energy development

• The Joint Declaration will help
  in accelerating mobilization of finance for solar energy.
• The World Bank will have a major
  role in mobilizing more than 1000 billion US dollars in investments that will
  be needed by 2030 for the massive deployment of affordable solar energy.

• Indian shuttler B Sai Praneeth on
  3 July 2016 clinched the Canada Open Grand Prix Badminton Men’s Singles title
  at Calgary.
• Praneeth defeated Lee Hyun II of
  Korea 21-12, 21-10.
• On the other hand, men’s doubles
  pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy also grabbed Men’s doubles title at the
  tournament.
• Top seed doubles pair Attri and
  Reddy defeated Adrian Liu and Toby Ng 21-8 21-14 in a lop-sided final. The pair
  of Attri and Reddy is the first Indian men’s doubles pair to qualify for the
  Rio Olympics.

• Indian footballer Gurpreet Singh
  Sandhu in the first week of July 2016 became the first Indian to play in Europa
  League.
• Sandhu was named in Norwegian
  club Stabaek FC’s squad for their Europa League qualifying match against Welsh
  Premier League side Connah’s Quay Nomads FC.

• Sameer Mon, the veteran sprinter
  of India, on 30 June 2016 won gold in 100 meter dash in 10.60 seconds at the
  56th National Inter-state Senior Athletics Championships in Hyderabad.
• With this, Sameer, representing
  Manipur, also became the fastest athlete in the country.
• 32-year-old Sameer was a member
  of the bronze winning Indian 4x100m relay quartet in Delhi Commonwealth Games.
  He had earlier won the Inter-state titles in 2008 and 2011.

• Women’s 100 metre dash: Reena
  George of Karnataka won Gold by clocking 11.99 seconds. Earlier, she switched
  from 400 meter dash to 100 meter dash.
• Women’s pole vault: Khyati
  Vakharia of Karnataka won Gold by clearing the season’s best 3.80 metre.

• The 2016 National Doctors’ Day
  was observed on 1 July 2016 across India.
• The day is observed to honour
  legendary physician, Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy whose birth and death anniversary
  falls on the same day.
• Dr Roy was honoured with the
  Bharat Ratna on 4 February 1961.
• The National Doctors’ Day gives
  an opportunity to raise the awareness about the doctor’s role in daily life.

• President Pranab Mukherjee on 1
  July 2016 presented the Dr. B. C. Roy National Awards for 2008, 2009 and 2010.
• The awards were presented at
  Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi on the occasion of Doctors’ Day.
• The B.C. Roy Awards were
  instituted by the Medical Council of India in 1976.
• The award was instituted in
  memory of renowned physician and former West Bengal Chief Minister Dr. Bidhan
  Chandra Roy.

• Michel Rocard, former Prime
  Minister of France, passed away on 2 July 2016 in Paris, France. He was 85.
• Rocard served as Prime Minister
  under President Francois Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991.

• Renowned Marathi writer
  Ramchandra Chintaman Dhere passed away on 1 July 2016 following prolonged
  illness. He was 86.
• Dhere was known for his
  exhaustive research in folk literature and bhakti tradition of Maharashtra.

• Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor
  and Nobel Laureate passed away on 2 July 2016 in New York, U.S. He was 87.
• In his first book, Night, Wiesel
  gave an account of his family being sent to the Nazi concentration camps.

• Alvin Toffler, the author of
  Future Shock, passed away on 27 June 2016 in Los Angeles, United States. He was
  87.
• Toffler’s book Future Shock outlines
  people’s anxiety at the pace of social change in the 1960s.
• His other famous works are The
  Third Wave, Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st
  Century and Revolutionary Wealth among others.

• Michael Cimino, the director of
  the Vietnam War classic The Deer Hunter, died on 2 July 2016 at his Los Angeles
  home. He was 77.
• Cimino was best known for
  directing, producing and co-writing the 1978 Academy Award-winning film The
  Deer Hunter. The film won five Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture
  for Cimino.
• He was also remembered for
  writing and directing Heaven’s Gate, which proved to be a financial failure.

Regards

Team ExamPundit