Current Affairs Update – 12th August, 2015

• Union Government and World Bank on 11 August 2015 signed
  308.40 million US dollar credit agreement in support of the second phase of the
  National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Program (NCRMP-II). The agreement was also
  signed by the state Governments of Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala,
  Maharashtra, and West Bengal.
• The agreement was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary,
  Department of Economic Affairs on behalf of the Union Government and John
  Blomquist, Program Leader and Acting Country Director in India, on behalf of
  the World Bank.
• The Project Agreements in respect of the States of Goa,
  Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and West Bengal were signed by the
  representatives of the respective State Governments.

• To reduce vulnerability to cyclone and other
  hydro-meteorological hazards of coastal communities in the states of Goa,
  Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and West Bengal
• It aims at increasing the capacity of the State entities to
  effectively plan for and respond to disasters.
• The project will also finance technical assistance for
  strengthening of multi-hazard risk management at the national level and
  improving the quality of available information on multi-hazard risks for decision
  making across the country.

• South Korean steel-maker POSCO and Shree Uttam Steel and
  Power Ltd. have agreed to set up a three million tonne per year integrated
  steel plant in western Maharashtra State, Uttam Galva said on Tuesday.
• The plant would be the first in India for POSCO, the world’s
  No. 6 steel-maker, as it continues to battle regulatory hurdles for a
  decade-old project to set up a mega $12-billion steel plant in the eastern Odisha
  State.
• Shree Uttam Steel and Power is owned by the co-promoters of
  Uttam Galva Steels Ltd., which is jointly owned by ArcelorMittal.
• Both POSCO and ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest
  steel-maker, have scrapped a number of other projects in India over the past
  two years, citing difficulties in acquiring land and mines.
• POSCO, which already has steel processing centres in the
  cities of Pune, Chennai and near New Delhi, has made little progress and could
  scrap the Odisha project after a new law made it costlier to source iron ore
  for the plant.
• The proposed joint venture plans to set up the plant, to be
  located at Satarda in Sindhudurg district, in two phases and hopes to take
  advantage of an expected surge in steel demand in the country, the company
  said.
• An investment of about $1 billion is needed to set up a
  1-million-tonne-per-year steel plant.

• Government today said the National Bank for Agriculture and
  Rural Development (NABARD) has been accredited by the Green Climate Fund as an
  implementing entity for undertaking climate change related projects in India.
• The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was set up under the framework
  of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010
  to help developing countries finance clean energy, other mitigation efforts and
  adaptation to climate change.
• The project plans to cover an area of 30,000 hectare under
  the agro-forestry plantation of fast growing canal eucalyptus species, he
  added.
• Scaling up climate finance, including effective leverage of
  the GCF, is an essential component of a new global climate pace to be reached
  in the forthcoming meeting in Paris in December 2015.

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has tied up
  with the Union Urban Development Ministry for mapping over 500 towns and
  cities, to make a base plan for better planning and management.
• This base plan will further help the town planners to
  prepare a master plan for many fast urbanising local bodies.
• The mapping is being currently done for municipal local
  bodies with a population of more than a lakh.
• The project is expected to start by next month.

• Uttar Pradesh Government on 11 August 2015 approved the
  amended guidelines for Begum Akhtar Award. The amendment empowers the Chief
  Minister to make any further amendments to the guidelines.
• The award will be annually awarded on singers of ghazal,
  dadra, and thumri who have achieved a milestone in these forms of music. It
  will be conferred on a singer who is a local resident of the state and should
  not be less than 40 years of age.
• The award will carry a cash award of 5 lakh rupees, an
  ‘angvastram’ and a citation.

• Wipro Chairman Azim Premji and HCL founder Shiv Nadar are
  the only two Indian tycoons in the top 20 richest people in the world of
  technology, according to an inaugural list by Forbes, topped by Microsoft
  co-founder Bill Gates.
• Premji is ranked 13th on Forbes’ first ever list of ‘100
  Richest People in Tech’, followed by Nadar on the 14th spot.
• Two Indian-origin technology czars Romesh Wadhwani and Bharat
  Desai are also in the list.
• Forbes said Premji, 70, who has a net worth of USD 17.4
  billion, is among Asia’s most generous tycoons, having given away more than USD
  four billion of his fortune.
• Shiv Nadar has a net worth of USD 14.4 billion and gets bulk
  of his wealth from software services outfit HCL Technologies.
• Wadhwani is ranked 73rd on the list with a USD 2.8 billion
  net worth. The 67-year-old IIT alumnus is CEO and Chairman of Symphony
  Technology Group, a collection of 20 companies spanning big data, analytics and
  software with combined annual revenue of three billion dollars.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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