Current Affairs Update – 11th August, 2016

• Axis Bank and payments company
  Suvidhaa Infoserv, today launched ‘Nano Credit’ to offer pre-approved, instant
  and unsecured loans for the urban low income segment. The maximum loan amount
  is Rs 15,000 and is available to existing customers of Suvidhaa at 22,000
  locations across the country.
• A customer who utilises
  Suvidhaa’s remittance or bill payment facilities can avail himself of loans up
  to Rs 15,000 with no paperwork within a few hours. This is possible because the
  customer’s details such as address proof, etc are already captured in Suvidhaa’s
  database and e-KYC is done using Aadhaar number.
• The loan is disbursed in the form
  of a pre-paid card, which can be used at ATMs or point-of-sales. The interest
  rate is 14 per cent onwards and repayment term is 18 months. Axis Bank is also
  offering overdraft facility where the repayment is one year.

• National Institution for
  Transforming India (NITI) Aayog on 10 August 2016 signed agreement with United
  States (US) Energy Information Administration (EIA) to set up web portal on
  energy data.
• The web portal will host all the
  data related to energy sector including oil & gas, coal, solar &
  thermal energy etc. NITI Aayog, a think tank of Union Government, is working to
  develop India’s energy data agency which will take 3-4 years to develop.
• Niti Aayog also signed Statement
  Of Principle (SOP) with US Agency for International Development (USAID) and
  Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) of United Kingdom (UK) for
  collaboration in the area of energy research.
• Through this agreement, the Aayog
  aims to host all the data related to energy sector in the country including oil
  and gas, coal, solar and thermal energy, much on the lines of the Energy
  Information Administration of US.

• Gift card technology and prepaid
  solutions company Qwikcilver on Thursday, announced the appointment of former
  Reserve Bank executive director, G Padmanabhan as a strategic advisor.
• Padmanabhan has 36 years of
  experience in banking and payments sector which includes his term as executive
  director at RBI, managing payment and settlement systems, foreign exchange
  department and information at RBI, a statement by Qwikcilver said.
• As part of the advisory board,
  Padmanabhan will advise Qwikcilver on strategic direction, product guidance
  from a regulatory view point, and towards strengthening the corporate
  governance, regulatory compliance and risk management processes, Qwikcilver
  said.

• Microsoft today announced the
  appointment of Sriram Rajamani as new managing director of its India lab.
• Based in BENGALURU, he will
  spearhead Microsoft India’s continued focus on world-class research, innovation
  and collaboration with the scientific community, the company said in a release.
• He replaces Chandu Thekkath, who
  was managing director of the lab for two years.

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• Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
  President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa
  on 10 August 2016 dedicated Unit 1 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant to the
  nation.
• Besides, PM Modi announced that
  five more reactors of 1000 megawatt each will come up in the same location.
• The reactors are being built jointly
  by Nuclear Power Corporation of India and Atomstroyexport company, a subsidiary
  of Rosatom (the regulatory body of the Russian nuclear complex).
• The power plant is updated with
  most modern Russian technologies.
• The first reactor of the plant
  attained criticality on 13 July 2013 at 11:05 P.M.
• KKNPP was first synchronised to
  grid at 2:45 A.M. on 22 October 2013. Power generation from first nuclear
  reactor started on the same day.

• Wipro Chairman Azim Premji and
  HCL co-founder Shiv Nadar are the only two billionaires from India in Forbes’
  list of the world’s 100 richest people in technology, ranking in the top 20
  ahead of Google boss Eric Schmidt and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
• The ‘100 Richest Tech
  Billionaires In The World 2016’ list has been topped by Microsoft founder Bill
  Gates with an estimated fortune of  $78
  billion.
• Premji ranks 13th on the list
  with a net worth of  $16 billion and Nadar
  comes in on the 17th spot with $11.6 billion of net worth. Two Indian-American
  technology czars Symphony Technology Group CEO Romesh Wadhwani and founders of
  IT consulting and outsourcing company Syntel Bharat Desai and his wife Neerja
  Sethi are also on the list.
• Forbes said Premji, who heads
  India’s third-largest outsourcer, Wipro has been on a buying spree in the past
  year to boost growth. Premji’s son Rishad, who heads strategy and sits on the
  board, also oversees Wipro’s $100 million venture capital fund.
• Nadar co-founded HCL, which is
  reportedly mulling a US listing, Forbes said adding that Nadar also owns HCL
  TalentCare, a skills-development firm that provides training to new graduates.
  His latest venture is a $500 million fund to invest in start ups and US
  healthcare tech firms.

• China on 10 August 2016 launched
  Gaofen-3 Satellite, China’s first Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)  imaging satellite. The satellite was launched
  from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in northern Shanxi province on
  Wednesday.
• Gaofen-3 is  a high-resolution satellite for the
  protection of its maritime rights as the South China Sea dispute continues to
  simmer.
• It is also China’s first low
  orbit remote sensing satellite that has a lifespan of eight years.
• It will be used for disaster
  warning, weather forecasting, water resource assessments, and the protection of
  maritime rights.

• Pakistan’s legendary former
  captain and batsman Hanif Muhammad, who held the record for the longest innings
  in Test cricket, passed away today after a prolonged battle with lung cancer.
• He had earlier in the day, been
  declared clinically dead for around six minutes before he was revived back to
  life.
• Hanif’s son Shoaib Muhammad had
  first announced from the hospital on various television channels that his
  father had passed away after losing a protracted battle with various ailments.
  But few minutes later it was clarified that Muhammad was still alive.