Current Affairs Update – 10th July, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 10th July, 2015. These are important for the upcoming SBI PO Mains and RBI Assistant 2015 Exam.

Finance/Banking
RBI released Final
Guidelines on PPI for Mass Transit System (PPI-MTS)

  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 9 July 2015 released the
    final guidelines on Prepaid Payment Instruments for Mass Transit System
    (PPI-MTS). The issued guidelines enable the issuance of a separate category of
    semi-closed prepaid payment instruments for mass transit systems.
  • The PPI-MTS will enhance commuter convenience and will also
    facilitate the migration to electronic payments in line with the country’s
    vision of moving to a less-cash society.
  • The PPI-MTS can be used within the mass transit systems and
    will have a minimum validity of six months from date of issue. Such PPIs will
    be reloadable instruments subject to an outstanding limit of 2000 rupees at any
    point of time.
  • Apart from the mass transit system, such PPI-MTS can be used
    at other merchants whose activities are allied to or are carried on within the
    premises of the transit system.

Exim Bank, BRICS
member development banks ink MoU with NDB
  • Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) today said it has
    signed a multilateral agreement to cooperate with New Development Bank (NDB)
    along with other member development banks of BRICS nations.
  • New Development Bank (NDB) is promoted by the BRICS nations
    — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
  • The agreement was signed between Exim Bank Chairman and
    Managing Director Yaduvendra Mathur and Chairpersons or Presidents of other
    member development banks of BRICS in Ufa, Russia during the BRICS Summit 2015,
    a bank release said.
  • Exim Bank also signed a cooperation agreement with Brazilian
    Development Bank (BNDES).
  • This MoU is aimed at sharing of knowledge, information and
    best practices; capacity building of personnel, including project development
    skills; promotion of joint events, research and programmes; development of
    effective and sustainable financing solutions for projects of mutual interest.

E-commerce overtakes
BFSI to become second largest office space occupier

  • E-commerce has overtaken banking and financial services
    (BFSI) as the second largest occupier of office space in India after
    information technology (IT), said global property consultants CBRE.
  • A key development witnessed in the second quarter (Q2) is
    the spurt in office space leasing by online retail companies – Amazon, Flipkart
    and Snapdeal – particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Bengaluru.
  • “This led to the sector emerging as the second-largest
    occupier of office space during Q2 with a share of about 17 per cent, followed
    by banking and financial services at around 16 per cent. With a share of
    approximately 36 per cent, IT/ITeS remained the largest occupier of office
    space across the leading cities – Chennai, NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkatta
    and Bengaluru,” said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman and Managing Director of CBRE,
    South Asia.
  • The total office space absorption for the January-June
    period stood at about 13 million square feet, a decline of 12 per cent when
    compared to H1 2014.
  • As for transaction activity, it was mostly led by office
    leasing in Bengaluru (28 per cent), Delhi NCR (23 per cent) and Mumbai (20 per
    cent); while smaller cities such as Chennai and Pune contributed around 25 per
    cent in their transaction market shares.
  • Leasing activity rebounded in Q2 with more than 8 million
    square feet of office space absorbed across the seven cities – Chennai, NCR,
    Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Bengaluru. Quarter-on-quarter basis it has
    risen 70 per cent.

India gets full membership
of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

  • Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) today decided to
    include India as a full member, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to offer
    to work with the six-member grouping to enhance connectivity, combat terror and
    create an environment for boosting trade by easing barriers.
  • India, which has an Observer status for the past 10 years,
    will technically become the member by next year after completion of certain
    procedures.
  • Beijing-based SCO currently has China, Russia, Kazakhstan,
    Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as members.
  • Along with India, the process to include Pakistan as a
    member was also initiated here today.
  • India was made an Observer in the SCO in 2005 and it made an
    application last year for full membership of the grouping whose focus is on
    connectivity, counter-terrorism cooperation, bolstering cooperation in energy
    sector, enhancing trade and dealing with drug trafficking.

India
Bharat
Electronics-made Akash inducted into Indian Air Force

  • Defence PSU Bharat Electronics made Akash inducted into
    Indian Air Force.
  • BEL, the nodal agency and supplies major sub-systems, today
    at a ceremony held at Air Force Station, Gwalior, handed over the missile
    system.
  • Akash is a great success story of the ‘Make in India’
    initiative and Bharat Electronics Limited is proud to be a part of it. Barring
    a few electronic components, every bit of Akash has the ‘Made in India’ tag.
    Almost 92 per cent of the total cost of inputs is sourced within India.
  • The induction of Akash into the Indian Air Force was marked
    by the symbolic handing over of the ‘key’ of the weapon system by S K Sharma,
    Chairman and Managing Director, BEL, to the Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar,
    who in turn handed over the key to Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, Chief of the
    Air Staff.
  • S Christopher, Director General, DRDO, was present. The
    ceremony was also attended by senior dignitaries of the Ministry of Defence,
    Indian Air Force, DRDO and Defence PSUs.

India’s 1st
Earthquake Warning System successfully installed in Uttarakhand
  • An Earthquake Warning System (EWS) was successfully
    installed in Uttarakhand, Dehradun in the first week of July 2015. With this,
    Uttarakhand became first Indian state to install a system that can detect
    earthquakes and disseminate warnings.
  • The system was designed and manufactured by Italian firm
    Space Dynamics which already installed this system in Japan, Italy and US. The
    system will issue warnings 1-40 seconds before the occurrence of earthquakes of
    magnitude 5 or more.
  • According to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS),
    Uttarakhand falls under Seismic Zone –V, which is a zone of high seismic
    activity with magnitude of 6.9 or greater on Richter scale. Apart from it,
    Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Rann of Kutch (Gujarat), Northern Bihar
    and Andaman & Nicobar Islands also fall under this seismic zone.

India, USA signed MoU
on cooperation to establish PACESetter Fund
  • India and the USA on 30 June 2015 signed a Memorandum of
    Understanding (MoU) on cooperation to establish the PACESetter Fund in New
    Delhi.
  • The agreement was signed by Upendra Tripathy, Secretary,
    Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Richard Verma, United States
    Ambassador to India.
  • The PACESetter Fund is meant to support the Promoting Energy
    Access Through Clean Energy (PEACE) track of the USA-India Partnership to
    Advance Clean Energy (PACE).
  • It was established with a corpus of about 50 crore rupees
    with both the countries contributing equally.
  • To oversee the fund, a steering Committee comprising the
    Secretary of the MNRE and the United States Ambassador to India, and three
    representatives from each side has been constituted.

Features of
USA-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE)
  • It is a flagship initiative on clean energy that combines
    the resources of several U.S. agencies and GOI Ministries.
  • It is aimed accelerating the commercialization of off-grid
    clean energy through early-stage grant funding grants to develop and test innovative
    products, systems and business models.

Summit
7th BRICS Summit held
in Ufa, Russia

  • The seventh BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South
    Africa) summit was held from 8 to 9 July 2015 in the Russian city of Ufa in
    Bashkortostan. It was held under the theme BRICS Partnership – a Powerful
    Factor of Global Development.
  • The summit was attended by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi
    and Dilma Rousseff, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Jacob Zuma president of
    Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa respectively.
  • At the end of the summit, Ufa Declaration was released by
    the leaders that called for enhanced coordinated efforts in responding to
    emerging challenges, ensuring peace and security, promoting development in a
    sustainable way among the member countries.
  • Besides the BRICS summit level meeting, the leaders held a
    summit with the members of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the
    Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

Dus Kadam: 10 Steps
for the Future proposed by PM Narendra Modi for BRICS countries
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 July 2015 proposed a 10
    point initiative named as ‘Dus Kadam: 10 Steps for the Future’ to boost
    cooperation within the members of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and
    South Africa).
  • He proposed the initiative while addressing the 7th BRICS
    summit in Ufa, Russia.

The 10 steps of
the proposed Dus Kadam are:
  1. BRICS Trade Fair (to be held during India’s chairmanship in
    2016)
  2. BRICS Railway Research Centre
  3. Cooperation among Supreme Audit Institutions
  4. BRICS Digital Initiative
  5. BRICS Agricultural Research Centre
  6. BRICS state/Local Government’s Forum
  7. Cooperation among cities in field of Urbanisation
  8. BRICS Sports Council and Annual BRICS Sports Meet
  9. First Major Project of NDB to be in field of Clean Energy
  10. BRICS Film Festival

India will be hosting the Eighth BRICS Summit in 2016.
Appointments
Kolkata-based Bandhan
Bank appointed its Chairman, Boards of Directors
  • Bandhan Bank Ltd on 9 July 2015 appointed its Chairman and
    Board of Directors. The bank will commence its operations in India from 23
    August 2015. It will be the first bank to be established in Eastern India post
    Independence.
  • Ashok Kumar Lahiri, former Chief Economic Adviser to the
    Union Government, was appointed as the Chairman of the bank. While, Chandra
    Shekhar Ghosh, Founder of Bandhan Financial Services Ltd, was appointed as the
    Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank. They both will be in
    the board of directors as well.

Appointment of
Directors
  • B. Sambamurthy, former Chairman and Managing Director of
    Corporation Bank
  • C M Dixit, Senior Partner at GD Apte & Co
  • Prof Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Associate Professor of
    Finance at Indian School of Business
  • Snehomoy Bhattacharya, Former Executive Director (Corporate
    Affairs) of Axis Bank
  • Pradip Kumar Saha, former Chief General Manager at Small
    Industries Development Bank of India
  • Sisir Kumar Chakrabarti, former Dy. Managing Director of
    Axis Bank
  • Bhaskar Sen, former Chairman and Managing Director of United
    Bank of India
  • TS Raji Gain, Chief General Manager of National Bank for
    Agriculture and Rural Development

All these
appointments are subjected to the approval of the Reserve Bank of India
Housing.Com Appoints
Rishabh Gupta As Interim CEO
  • Realty portal Housing.Com has appointed Rishabh Gupta as
    interim CEO after it sacked co-founder and ex-CEO Rahul Yadav last week.
  • Gupta, who is currently Chief Operating Officer (COO) in the
    SoftBank-backed portal, has been named as interim CEO with immediate effect,
    sources said.
  • Rishabh Gupta, Haresh Chawla and Abhishek Anand (Chief
    Technical Officer) will be joining the company’s operating committee, they
    added.
  • On July 1, Housing.Com’s board had sacked Yadav with
    immediate effect, saying that his behaviour towards investors and media was not
    “befitting” of a CEO.
  • The company had also said that Yadav would not be an
    employee or part of the portal in any manner.
  • The board had unanimously agreed to bring Yadav’s tenure to
    a close, with reference to “his behaviour towards investors, ecosystem and
    the media”.

Sports
Sunil Chetri goes to
Mumbai City FC for Rs 1.20 crore

  • Mumbai City FC were successful with a 1.20-crore-bid for
    Sunil Chetri, resulting in a pairing of India’s leading striker with French ace
    Nicolas Anelka, the IS franchise player-manager in Hero ISL 2015.
  • Chetri, commanding the highest base price of Rs. 80 lakh in
    the 10-player auction at a city hotel on Friday, was a Free Agent and will be
    playing the ISL for the first time. He starred in the Bengaluru FC forwardline
    last season in the I-League.
  • Midfielder Eugeneson Lyngdoh got the next best bid, Rs. 1.05
    crore against a base price Rs. 27.50 lakh and will represent FC Pune City. He
    was loaned to the ISL from Bengaluru FC.
  • Athletico de Kolkata, the ISL 2014 champion side, signed up
    defender Rino Anto, bidding Rs. 90 lakh against a base price of Rs 17.5 lakh,
    the lowest priced among Indian internationals put up for auction. He was loaned
    by Bengaluru FC.

Obituaries
Renowned Urdu poet
Bashar Navaaz passed away

  • Noted Urdu poet and critic Bashar Navaaz passed away on 9
    July 2015 following a brief illness in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. He was 80. He
    was known as an Indo Pak shayar as his poetry is popular in India as well as in
    Pakistan.
  • Born on 18 August 1935 at Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Navaaz
    was famous for his writings that were regularly published in various Urdu
    literary journals magazines in India and abroad. His books Rayagan, Ajanabee
    samandar were very popular among gazal lovers.

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This post was last modified on July 20, 2019 10:17 am