Current Affairs Update – 10th August, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs Update of 10th August, 2015. These are Important for the upcoming Insurance Exams and IBPS RRB 2015.

• Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has tied up with Foxconn
  to start assembling phones in India, seeking to cut costs and grab a bigger
  slice of the world’s third-largest smartphone market.
• The announcement comes on the heels of a separate
  announcement by Foxconn to invest $5 billion in an electronics manufacturing
  facility.
• Lack of good infrastructure and suppliers have hampered
  efforts to manufacture smartphones in the country, forcing most of India’s more
  than 100 different phone companies to obtain their products from China and
  Taiwan.
• An assembly line in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh
  will, from Monday, begin rolling out Xiaomi’s first locally made smartphone,
  the Redmi2 Prime, company executives said.
• The Indian market, which Xiaomi entered in July last year,
  has fast become its second-largest market as the company’s low-priced,
  feature-rich phones find favour with young and cost-conscious customers.

• Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) would raise Rs
  6,000 crore through tax-free bonds in the current fiscal, Lok Sabha was told
  today.
• IRFC has been authorised by the Railway Ministry to issue
  tax-free bonds for a total amount of Rs 6,000 crore during the financial year
  2015-16 through public issue, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said
  in the House.
• Railways would utilise the funds to finance acquisition of
  rolling stock such as engines, coaches and wagons for use by the Railways.

• ToneTag, a Bengaluru firm that has developed technology that
  enables contactless payments through mobile phones raised $1 million (Rs 6.4
  crore) in Series A from Reliance Capital’s Venture fund arm.
• The firm uses a patented solution that enables consumers to
  pay for goods and services through near field communication (NFC) technology
  that uses radio or sound waves. ToneTag says the payment solution works on
  feature phones as well as smartphones.The firm says no sensitive data of the
  customer is saved either on the mobile or on the cloud.
• Founded by Kumar Abhishek, a former Infosys employee and
  Vivek Kumar Singh, a chartered accountant by profession, ToneTag’s solution has
  been piloted in India and other marktes.

• Union Government on 10 August 2015 launched the School
  Nursery Yojana, an initiative to bring students closer to nature. The Yojana
  seeks to engage class VI to IX in raising of saplings in nurseries created in
  schools.
• The Yojana was launched by Union Environment Minister
  Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi. The underlying theme of the Yojana is to plant
  a tree for sustainable future and to make the nation clean and green.
• The Yojana in its first phase would cover 1000 schools and
  would be extended to 5000 schools in 2016 and 10000 schools the following year.
• Under the Yojana, students will grow saplings as part of
  practical exercise for biology classes and extra-curriculum activities.
• The schools will have eco clubs and school principals will
  maintain the nursery for at least five years.
• Each school will initially receive first time financial
  grant of 25000 rupees for creation of the nursery with essential facilities.
• The state forest departments will guide and provide
  technical support to schools under the scheme.

• The government has approved a Rs 16,680-crore National
  Highways (NHs) upgradation project that will see construction of about 1,000 km
  expressways, covering eight NH stretches, Parliament was informed today.
• “Government has approved a plan for construction of
  about 1,000 km expressways at an estimated cost of Rs 16,680 crore on design,
  build, finance, operate and transfer mode under NHDP phase VI,” Minister
  of State for Road Construction and Highways Pon Radhakrishnan told Rajya Sabha
  in a written reply.
• Radkhakrishnan said the government has identified eight
  stretches for upgradation into expressways that include 249 km Delhi-Chandigarh
  section of NH-1 and NH-22; 334 km of Bangalore-Chennai section of NH-4; 261 km
  of Delhi-Jaipur section of NH-8, and 277 km Kolkata-Dhanbad stretch of NH-2.
• The National Highways to be upgraded also include 66 km
  Delhi-Meerut section of NH-58; 200 km of Delhi-Agra section of NH-2 and 135 km
  length of Eastern Peripheral Expressway.

• Accepting the proposal by the Maharashtra State government
  to work for Tiger conservation, Indian film superstar Amitabh Bachchan on
  Monday agreed to represent the State as its Tiger Ambassador.
• On August 4, Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar
  had written letters to Mr. Bachchan and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar inviting
  them to be the Tiger Ambassadors and creating awareness regarding conversation
  and protection of the endangered species as well as boost tiger tourism.
• Maharashtra has six tiger reserves including Melghat Tiger
  Reserve in Amravati, Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Mungantiwar’s home
  district of Chandrapur, Pench and Nagzira-Navegan Tiger Reserves near Nagpur,
  Sahyadri sanctuary which includes CHandoli National Par and Koyna Sanctuary and
  Bor tiger reserve in Wardha district.
• The tiger population in the state has increased from 103 in
  2006 to 169 in 2010, according to the tiger census. Tadoba-Andhari Tiger
  Reserve has been extremely popular with tourists due to the increased frequency
  of tiger sightings.

• Indian sociobiologist Raghavendra Gadagkar was on 7 August
  2015 awarded with the Germany’s highest civilian honour Cross of Order of the
  Merit at the German Consulate in Bengaluru.
• He was bestowed with the honour for his contribution in the
  field of behavioural ecology and sociobiology and for strengthening research
  corporation between India and Germany.
• Currently, Gadagkar is a professor at the Centre for
  Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He is also the
  president of the Indian National Science Academy and has published more than
  270 research papers and two books.
• His first book, Survival Strategies, has been translated
  into Chinese and Korean. He was also the founding Chair person of the Centre
  for Contemporary Studies, established at IISc in 2004.

• Ajeet Kumar Saroj, a 23-year-old culpable homicide convict
  lodged in Varanasi central jail was on 8 August 2015 awarded with gold medal by
  the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) at Banaras Hindu University
  (BHU). He was awarded for topping in Diploma in Tourism Studies.
• He was awarded his diploma at the 28th convocation of IGNOU
  held at BHU, where he was escorted to receive it. He is the only gold medalist
  from Varanasi region of IGNOU, which covers 20 districts.
• Ajeet, who is serving a 10-year imprisonment, was lodged in
  jail in February 2012. He has pursued four certificate courses from IGNOU
  before pursuing the Diploma in Tourism Studies.

• Goa Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar on 7 August 2015
  received the Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA) – Safari India
  South Asia Travel Award 2015. Parulekar is the first tourism minister of Goa to
  receive this prestigious award.
• Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA) found in
  1998 at the Pacific Area Travel Association (PATA) Conference in Colombo, Sri
  Lank, is a professional organization of travel writers.
• PATWA is an affiliate of United Nations and World Tourism
  Organization (WTO). It adheres to the fundamental principles of the United
  Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United
  Nations (UN), and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

• Freedom fighter, author and poet Kayyar Kinhanna Rai passed
  away at his residence in Badiyadka in Kasargod district of Kerala today, family
  sources said.
• A recipient of the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award in 1969
  and the national award the same year for the best teacher, Rai had penned books
  on various subjects, including theatre, language, biographies and also for
  children.
• In 2005, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by Mangalore
  University, they said.
• Rai was one of the campaigners for merging Kasargod
  district, which is now in Kerala and has a sizeable number of Kannadigas, into
  Karnataka and founded the ‘Kasargod Merger Action Council’ in 2002. He also
  supported formation of a separate ‘Tulunadu’ for the Tulu speaking population.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

Sponsored

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Books For 2015 Banking/Insurance Exams