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.

Finance
Xiaomi ties up with
Foxconn to ‘Make in India’

  • 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.

Railway Finance Corp
to issue Rs 6,000 cr tax-free bonds

  • 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.

Offline payments
enabler ToneTag raises $1 mn from Reliance Capital

  • 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.

India
Union Government
launched School Nursery Yojana to bring students closer to nature
  • 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.

Govt Approves 17K
Crore Highways Upgradation Projects
  • 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.

Amitabh Bachchan
signs up as Maharashtra’s Tiger Ambassador

  • 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.

Awards
& Honors –
Raghavendra Gadagkar
awarded with Germany’s Cross of Order of the Merit
  • 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,
Varanasi jail inmate awarded with IGNOU gold medal
  • 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
Parulekar conferred with PATWA 2015 award
  • 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).

Obituaries
Freedom Fighter,
Author & Poet Kinhanna Rai Dies at 101
  • 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.

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