Current Affairs Update – 13th to 16th August, 2016

• The Union Bank of India (UBI) on
  12 August 2016 launched an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) based
  *99# Mobile Application for their customers for basic banking needs.
• It was launched in partnership
  with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organisation
  for all retail payments system in the country.

• It can be downloaded in an
  android smartphone from the Google Play Store by the bank customers.
• It can be used even without any
  internet connection as it does not require any data and is available in 10
  languages.
• It provides basic banking
  facilities like checking account balance, sending money, Mobile PIN (MPIN)
  management.
• Besides, it provides value added
  services like checking Aadhaar linked overdraft status and PMJDY account
  overdraft status.

• Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL) on
  10 August 2016 inaugurated the Nickel, Copper and Acid Recovery Plant of
  Hindustan Copper Limited at Indian Copper Complex, Ghatsila in Jharkhand.
• This is the first facility in
  India to produce Nickel metal of LME grade from primary resource.
• This project will utilize an
  eco-friendly technology and will check pollution by eliminating the use of
  lead.
• It will have reduced liquid
  effluent, generate 75 percent less solid waste, utilize less energy, provide
  safe working environment and utilize and conserve natural resources.
• At present the capacity of the
  plant is 50 MT per annum, considering the current production rate from the
  Surda mines.
• The Nickel output is expected to
  increase by eight times after the completion of mine expansion projects located
  at Ghatsila.

• The India Nuclear Insurance Pool
  (INIP) on 12 August 2016 unveiled India’s first Nuclear Suppliers’ Insurance
  Policy.
• New India Assurance Company
  Limited and INIP will issue the policy and administer the claims on behalf of
  the pool.
• The INIP has become the 27th such
  insurance pool in the world as countries such as France, Russia, South Africa
  and the U.S. have put in place such similar risk transfer mechanisms.

• It will cover the risks of
  liability of nuclear operators and suppliers under Section 6(2) and Section 17
  of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages (CLND) Act, 2010 respectively.
• It provides three types of
  policies viz., tier 1 policy for operators, tier 2 policy for turn key
  suppliers and tier 3 policy for suppliers other than turn key suppliers.
• The pricing of premiums will
  depend on factors such as risk probability, possible severity of damage and exposure
  to people and property around nuclear installations.

• Bihar today ratified the Goods
  and Services Tax (GST) constitution amendment Bill, becoming the second state,
  and the first non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled state, to do so. Last
  week, the legislative assembly of BJP ruled Assam had become the first state in
  the country to ratify the Bill. The Bill, passed by Parliament in its monsoon
  session, needs to be ratified by 16 of the 31 state assemblies to become law.
• Bihar has a bicameral
  legislature. Today, the Bihar Assembly as well the Legislative Council
  unanimously ratified the Bill at a special one day session. The Bihar assembly
  session had concluded earlier this month, but Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
  had assured Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a telephonic conversation that his
  state would ratify the constitution amendment Bill at the earliest.
• The Bihar government, which has
  lost revenue after implementing prohibition since April 1, has hopes that the
  tax reform would bring more revenue to the state coffers.

• The Union Government on 12 August
  2016 constituted the National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF).
• The committee seeks to develop
  the pan-India road map for trade facilitation as per the Trade Facilitation
  Agreement (TFA) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
• Earlier, on 22 April 2016, India
  ratified the TFA which is an outcome of the Bali Package 2013 or Ninth
  Ministerial Conference of the WTO.

• It is an inter-ministerial body
  on trade facilitation.
• It will act as a national level
  body that will facilitate domestic co-ordination and implementation of TFA
  provisions.
• It will play lead role in
  developing the pan-India road map for trade facilitation.
• It will synergise the various
  trade facilitation perspectives across the country.
• The focus will be on outreach
  programmes for sensitization of stakeholders about it.
• The committee will also be
  responsible for identifying the nature of required legislative changes and
  spearheading the diagnostic tools needed for assessing compliance to TFA.
• It will have a 3-tier structure
  with main national committee for monitoring implementation of TFA.
• At the apex level, it will be
  headed by the Union Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha.

• In a bid to maintain transparency
  and ensure quick payment of dues, the Odisha government has decided to make
  Aadhar Card mandatory for procurement of paddy in the state.
• In a meeting at the state
  secretariat in Bhubaneswar held on 11 August 2016, it was decided to link
  Aadhaar cards of farmers to the cooperative banks and the peasants’ accounts
  for online transfer of cost of paddy to be procured from the coming kharif season.
• Both farmers and sharecroppers
  would link their Aadhaar cards for online payment of paddy cost. This apart,
  the government has also decided to link Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries for
  availing ration under National Food Security Scheme and work under MG-NREGA.
• So far 68 percent people have
  already availed Aadhar Card and others would be provided with the same before
  November 2016.

• The Nagaland Government on 10
  August 2016 decided to grant 33 percent reservation to women in Urban Local
  Bodies (ULBs). The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting held in Kohima.
• The decision was announced by the
  Chief Minister TR Zeliang during the State Level Watershed Conference held in
  Kohima.
• Zeliang however said the state
  has not been able to avail the annual developmental funds granted by the Centre
  for ULBs, which was a big loss.
• Elections to the state ULBs have
  been pending for several years as the tenure of the first municipal bodies came
  to an end between December 2009 and March 2010.
• Zeliang said the Joint Action
  Committee on Women Reservation of the Naga Mothers’ Association was fighting in
  the Supreme Court for 33 percent women reservation, which has also led to
  withholding of the elections to the ULBs.

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• Manjula Chellur was on 12 August
  2016 appointed as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court with effect from 24
  August 2016. Presently, she is the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.
• She succeeds DH Waghela, who
  retired as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court on 10 August 2016. Waghela
  held the post for a brief six months.
• Chellur will be only second woman
  Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court after Sujata Manohar who served the
  office in 1994. She is scheduled to retire in 2017.

• India’s top squash player Dipika
  Pallikal on 13 August 2016 won the Australian Open Squash women’s singles title
  in Melbourne.
• To win the title, the top seed
  Dipika defeated eighth seed Mayar Hany of Egypt 10-12, 11-5, 11-6, 11-4 in the
  40-minute final.
• For Dipika, this was the first
  title win in 2016. Earlier, in February 2015, she won the Winnipeg Winter Open
  in Canada.

• Usain Bolt on 14 August 2016
  clinched gold in the 100-metre final in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• With this win, Bolt became the
  first man to win the event three times at consecutive Olympic Games.
• Bolt won the race in 9.81
  seconds, followed by USA’s Justin Gatlin at 9.89 seconds and Canada’s Andre De
  Grasse at a personal-best 9.91 seconds.
• De Grasse is also the first
  Canadian male athlete to win a medal in Rio.

• Andy Murray of Great Britain on
  14 August 2016 won the gold medal in men’s singles tennis category in Rio 2016
  Olympic Games.
• To win the title, he defeated
  Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro 7-5 4-6 6-2 7-5 in the final match held at
  the Olympic Tennis Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• With the win, he retained the
  medal and became the first player to win two men’s singles tennis gold medals
  in Olympics.
• For him, it was also the 18th
  straight victory following his second Wimbledon title in July 2016.
• For Del Potro, the silver medal
  winner, it was his second Olympic medal after a bronze at the 2012 London
  Games.

• Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk on 15
  August 2016 broke her own women’s hammer world record to win the gold medal at
  the Rio Olympics.
• Wlodarczyk’s winning mark was
  82.29m.
• China’s Wenxiu Zhang won the
  silver medal with a mark of 76.75m. Sophie Hitchon of Great Britain earned the
  bronze medal.

• China on 16 August 2016 launched
  the world’s first quantum satellite named Quantum Experiments at Space Scaler
  (QUESS) satellite. The satellite was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch
  Centre in the remote northwestern province of Gansu.
• The satellite will help establish
  hack-proof communications between space and the ground.
• It is nicknamed Micius, after a
  5th century BC Chinese philosopher and scientist who has been credited as the
  first one in human history conducting optical experiments.
• It is designed to establish
  hack-proof quantum communications by transmitting uncrackable keys from space
  to the ground.
• It will enable secure
  communications between Beijing and Urumqi, the capital of China’s
  violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang.

• The International Youth Day was
  celebrated across the world on 12 August 2016. The theme of the 2016
  International Youth Day is – The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and
  Achieving Sustainable Consumption and Production.
• This year’s Day is about
  achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

• The World Bio-Fuel Day was
  observed across the world on 10 August 2016. The day is observed every year
  with an aim to create awareness about non fossil-fuels (Green Fuels).
• On 10 August 1893, Sir Rudalph
  Diesel (inventor of the diesel engine) for the first time successfully ran
  mechanical engine with Peanut Oil.
• His research experiment had predicted
  that vegetable oil is going to replace the fossil fuels in the next century to
  fuel different mechanical engines.