Current Affairs Update – 14-15th February, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 14th and 15th February, 2016. These are important for the upcoming LIC AAO 2016.
Current Affairs at a Glance – 14th and 15th February, 2016
  1. Information Technology sector employees get the highest pay in India with
    a median gross hourly salary of Rs. 346.42, while those in the manufacturing
    sector get paid the least at Rs. 254.04, says a report. According to Monster
    Salary Index (MSI), the IT sector is the highest paying sector in India, but
    only 57.4 per cent are satisfied with their salary.
  2. Mukesh Ambani-led group firm Reliance Jio Infocomm and eight global
    telecom players MTS, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Millicom, Orange, Rogers,
    TeliaSonera and TIM
    will build a new
    partnering operator alliance
    aimed at bringing innovative products and
    services to customers around the world.
  3. Vedanta Limited has reached an understanding with the Government of Odisha to commission
    an aluminum park in Jharsuguda.
  4. Mahindra & Mahindra to invest Rs 8,000 cr in Maharashtra
  5. As per the Swachh Survekshan results announced by the government on
    Monday, ​Dhanbad in Bihar was said to be
    the dirtiest city
    while Mysuru won the
    crown for the cleanest city
    .
  6. LAMITYE 2016, the 7th joint military training exercise between the Indian Army and the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) began on
    15 February 2016.
  7. Barsimlaguri Becomes Northeast’s First ‘Smart Village’
  8. 1st Mega Food Park (MFP) of Madhya Pradesh was on 12 February 2016
    inaugurated at Panwa village in Kasarwad tehsil of Khargone district.
  9. Jugnoo, leading mobile app that offers largest network of auto
    rickshaws across country, has signed a dual deal with popular TV and film
    actress Saumya Tandon.  The actress who has
    been appointed ambassador will also
    invest in the auto rickshaw agregator.
  10. Hypercity names Ramesh Menon as new CEO
  11. Ashok Chawla appointed as Chairman of TERI
  12. Indian-American Ranvir Trehan named Kennedy Centre trustee
  13. The 69th British Academy Films Awards (BAFTAs) were announced on 14
    February 2016. The award ceremony was held at the Royal Opera House in London. Wilderness
    drama The Revenant, starring Leonardo
    DiCaprio, won the Best Film Award. Brooklyn was named the Outstanding British
    Film
    . Leading Actor award was
    conferred to Leonardo DiCaprio for
    The Revenant. Brie Larson won Leading
    Actress Award
    for Room. Alejandro G.
    Iñárritu won Best Director
    award
    for The Revenant.
  14. Tata Steel wins TIME’s best in class for manufacturing award
  15. World Radio Day observed on 13 February
  16. Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner
    Martina Hingis on 14 February 2016 won the 2016 St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy in
    St. Petersburg, Russia.
  17. West Indies beats India to win their first U-19 World Cup
  18. Sindh becomes first Pakistan province to adopt Hindu Marriage Bill
  19. Biraja Prasad, who was posted recently as Ambassador to Tajikistan, passed away.

Finance/Industry/Economy –
IT highest-paying sector in India, manufacturing least: Monster Salary
Index

  • Information Technology sector
    employees get the highest pay in India with a median gross hourly salary of Rs.
    346.42, while those in the manufacturing sector get paid the least at Rs.
    254.04, says a report.
  • According to Monster Salary Index
    (MSI), the IT sector is the highest paying sector in India, but only 57.4 per
    cent are satisfied with their salary.
  • BFSI sector comes in second with
    a median salary of Rs. 300.23. The relatively higher remuneration reflects the
    high level education of workers with 16-17 years of schooling, the report
    noted.
  • Notwithstanding, the government’s
    focus towards the sector through its Make in India initiative, manufacturing
    sector is paid the least, as employees in this segment are paid about 9 per
    cent lesser than the median salary for the entire Indian economy taken together
    at Rs. 279.7.
  • The findings of the manufacturing
    sector show that irrespective of the education levels, the salaries are still
    very low, even for a Master’s degree holder, the median hourly salary stands at
    Rs. 260.8, the report noted.
  • Additionally, foreign owned
    manufacturing companies pay nearly double of what Indian manufacturing firms
    pay their workers.

Reliance Jio, eight telcos to set up global operator

  • Mukesh Ambani-led group firm
    Reliance Jio Infocomm and eight global telecom players MTS, BT, Deutsche
    Telekom, Millicom, Orange, Rogers, TeliaSonera and TIM will build a new
    partnering operator alliance aimed at bringing innovative products and services
    to customers around the world.
  • With this collaboration, these
    telcos can reach a potential customer base of around 1 billion in more than 80
    countries, besides allowing partner businesses to more efficiently and quickly
    bring innovative products and services.
  • The alliance is an open network
    of ‘like-minded’ operators worldwide with complementary geographical footprints.
  • It focuses on exchanging best
    practices on how to bring partner propositions to the market, on joint efforts
    in partner scouting and will also exchange knowledge about upcoming trends and
    services amongst the group.
  • The alliance is covering all relevant
    product categories within an operator’s business, mobile as well as fixed, B2C
    as well as B2B.
  • Currently, the alliance has
    established relationships with 30 innovative partner businesses including
    AirBnB, Celltick, Disconnect, Idoomoo, and Mojio amongst others and will be
    expanding to additional operators soon.

Vedanta, Odisha Govt tie up to commission Aluminum Park

  • Vedanta Limited has reached an
    understanding with the Government of Odisha to commission an aluminum park in
    Jharsuguda. The two sides reached an intention sharing on the sidelines of the
    Make in India Week in Mumbai today and a MoU would be signed in few months.
  • Abhijit Pati, CEO — Aluminum,
    Vedanta Limited said the park would attract an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in
    the first phase. The park would have units manufacturing foils, conductors and
    other aluminum users. Vedanta would be supplying molten aluminum metal from its
    adjoining plant in the area.
  • It would take 12-18 months to
    come up, Pati said in a teleconference. He said the park would be spread over
    204 acre of government land adjacent to the Vedanta smelter in Jharsuguda.
    Permission for land acquisition was underway.

Mahindra & Mahindra to invest Rs 8,000 cr in Maharashtra

  • Automotive manufacturer Mahindra
    & Mahindra (M&M) plans to invest Rs 8,000 crore in manufacturing plants
    in Maharashtra as part of its expansion plan.
  • This investment will be made over
    a period of 7 years and will be utilised towards infrastructure development,
    product development and capacity expansion for vehicles to be rolled out from
    Mahindra’s plants in Maharashtra. The projects will qualify as ‘Ultra Mega
    Project’.
  • An MoU to this effect was signed
    by Apurva Chandra, principal secretary (industries), Government of Maharashtra,
    and Dr Pawan Goenka, executive director, Mahindra & Mahindra at the
    on-going Make in India Week event in Mumbai.

India –
Swachh Sarvekshan results: Mysuru is India’s cleanest among 73 cities

  • As per the Swachh Survekshan
    results announced by the government on Monday, ​Dhanbad in Bihar was said to be
    the dirtiest city while Mysuru won the crown for the cleanest city.
  • Mysuru was judged cleanest among
    73 cities.
  • Swachh Survekshan results is a
    cleanliness monitor based on extensive surveys across Indian cities carried out
    by Quality Council of India (QCI).
  • On the other hand, Navi Mumbai
    and Greater Mumbai made were grouped in “leader cities”.
  • On the other hand, Chandigarh,
    Tiruchirapalli, Delhi (NDMC) and Vishakapatnam came after Mysuru in the top
    five cities which have high levels of sanitation and cleanliness.
  • In the Aspiring Leaders category
    Panaji leads the pack while Bihar’s capital Patna was bunched in the group of
    laggards category.
  • Best Performing city in
    Information, Education and Behaviour Change Communication (IEBC) activity was
    Tiruchirappalli.
  • The best performing city in North
    East was Gangtok and Greater Mumbai got the Best Performing city among Mega
    Cities.

7th India, Seychelles joint military exercise LAMITYE 2016 began in
Seychelles

  • LAMITYE 2016, the 7th joint
    military training exercise between the Indian Army and the Seychelles People’s
    Defence Forces (SPDF) began on 15 February 2016.
  • It will be a 2-week long exercise
    till 28 February 2016 and conducted at Seychelles Defence Academy (SDA) in
    Victoria, Seychelles.
  • Lamitye, which means friendship
    in Creole dialect, will be conducted with the aim of enhancing military
    cooperation and interoperability between the two countries.

Barsimlaguri Becomes Northeast’s First ‘Smart Village’

  • A remote nondescript,
    insurgency-ravaged village in Assam along Indo- Bhutan border has earned the
    distinction of being the area’s first smart village.
  • Barsimaluguri, about 11 km from
    the Indo-Bhutan border, in Baksa district has been turned into a model smart
    village with 100 per cent toilets, solar power and pure drinking water,
    following an initiative taken by a few individuals under the aegis of Nanda Talukdar
    Foundation (NTF).
  • The work to turn Barsimaluguri, a
    hamlet of 234 households of farmers, small traders and daily wage earners, into
    a smart village began on January 15, 2015 and the first step in this direction
    was to set up a model village working committee led by villagers Dinesh Bhuyan
    and Dipu Choudhury.
  • The first work initiated by the
    committee was setting up the water purification plant and now this village is
    perhaps the only one in the region to have a reverse osmosis plant.

1st Mega Food Park in Madhya Pradesh inaugurated at Panwa

  • 1st Mega Food Park (MFP) of
    Madhya Pradesh was on 12 February 2016 inaugurated at Panwa village in Kasarwad
    tehsil of Khargone district.
  • The MFP, named after Indus, was
    inaugurated by Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister of Food Processing
    Industries.

Details related to the Mega Food Park
  • It was set up by M/s Indus mega
    Food Part Pvt. Ltd at an estimated cost of 127.70 crore rupees in an area of
    53.78 acres.
  • It has a Central Processing
    Centre at Khargone and three Primary Processing Centres are being set up at
    Bedia, Ratlam and Ujjain to provide strong backward linkages.

Appointments –
Jugnoo ropes in TV star Saumya Tondon as brand ambassador

  • Jugnoo, leading mobile app that
    offers largest network of auto rickshaws across country, has signed a dual deal
    with popular TV and film actress Saumya Tandon.
  • The actress who has been
    appointed ambassador will also invest in the auto rickshaw agregator.
  • The association is in alignment
    with the new fad of Indian start-ups being backed by Bollywood. Celebrities are
    either putting in money or endorsing products by becoming their brand
    ambassadors.
  • While their monetary investment
    definitely helps, but the popularity factor they induce into the entire
    scenario is commendable.
  • Saumya Tandon is currently
    playing ‘Anita’ in popular comedy series ‘Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hai’. She also had
    the opportunity to work with Shah Rukh Khan as co-host in ‘Zor Ka Jhatka: Total
    Wipeout’.

Hypercity names Ramesh Menon as new CEO

  • Shoppers Stop-owned hypermarket
    chain HyperCITY today announced appointment of key management executives, key
    among them being Ramesh Menon as chief executive officer. Menon was earlier
    with Reliance Communcations as national head of wireless operations.
  • Yogesh Bisht was named vice
    president (human resources). Bisht has 21 years of experience in hospitality,
    retail and real estate.
  • Hypercity has named Manoj Jain as
    vice president of marketing, loyalty and visual merchandising.

Ashok Chawla appointed as Chairman of TERI

  • The Governing Council of TERI on
    12 February 2016 appointed Ashok Chawla, former Finance Secretary to the
    Government of India and former Chairman of the Competition Commission, as its
    new Chairman.
  • Chawla replaced B V Sreekantan,
    who was serving as the Chairman of TERI. Ajay Mathur, who had replaced Rajendra
    Kumar Pachauri as director-general when the latter was made executive
    vice-president, was also included in the governing council.
  • On the other hand, the Council
    also announced that Pachauri, who had been the Head of the Institute since 1982
    will be on leave from TERI, TERI Governing Council, and TERI University.

Indian-American Ranvir Trehan named Kennedy Centre trustee

  • President Barack Obama plans to
    appoint Ranvir Trehan, an alumnus of the Birla Institute of Technology and
    Science in India, as general trustee on Board of the John F. Kennedy Centre for
    the Performing Arts in the American capital.
  • Dedicated to the memory of
    President John F. Kennedy, the Kennedy Centre is the busiest performing arts
    facility in the US and annually hosts about 2,000 music, dance and theatre
    performances for audiences totalling nearly two million.
  • It the also supports artists in
    the creation of new work and serves as a leader in arts education.

Awards & Honors –
69th BAFTA Awards Given

  • The 69th British Academy Films
    Awards (BAFTAs) were announced on 14 February 2016. The award ceremony was  held at the Royal Opera House in London.
  • The awards were announced to
    honour the best British and international contributions to film in 2015.
  • Wilderness drama The Revenant,
    starring Leonardo DiCaprio, won the Best Film Award. Brooklyn was named the
    Outstanding British Film while Inside Out won the Best Animated Film. Amy won
    the award in Best Documentary category.

Awards
  1. Leading Actor – Leonardo DiCaprio
    for The Revenant
  2. Leading Actress – Brie Larson for
    Room
  3. Supporting Actor – Mark Rylance
    for Bridge of Spies
  4. Supporting Actress – Kate Winslet
    for Steve Jobs
  5. Best Director – Alejandro G.
    Iñárritu for The Revenant

Tata Steel wins TIME’s best in class for manufacturing award

  • American publishing company, Time
    Inc on Sunday announced the winners of the inaugural TIME India awards,
    honouring leaders for manufacturing excellence in India, at the Make in India
    week here.
  • McKinsey & Company is the
    knowledge partner for the awards. The awards encompassed three categories: Best
    in class manufacturing, manufacturing innovator of the year and young maker of
    the year.
  • Tata Steel won the award for best
    in class for manufacturing, while Hero MotoCorp was named the manufacturing
    innovator of the year and Yogesh and Rajesh Agrawal of Ajanta Pharma Limited
    were declared winners of the TIME India Young Maker of the Year.

Film on conservation efforts by Nagaland villagers won Golden Beaver
Award

  • Nagaland is changing, But…, a
    film on conservation efforts by villagers, on 13 February 2016 won the Golden
    Beaver Best Film Award in the institutional category at the 6th National
    Science Film Festival and Competition in Mumbai.
  • The film also received the
    technical excellence award for best sound design at the festival, organized by
    Vigyan Prasar of the Department of Science and Technology.
  • Renowned film maker M S Sathyu
    presented the award to the director of the film, Gurmeet Sapal.

Days –
World Radio Day observed on 13 February

  • World Radio Day was observed
    globally on 13 February 2016 with the theme Radio in Times of Emergency and
    Disaster.
  • To mark the occasion, various
    activities conducted across India celebrating importance of radio in the day to
    day life.
  • In Odisha, a two-day annual
    international event Outreach International Radio Fair 2016 was inaugurated in
    Bhubaneswar.

Sports –
Sania Mirza, Martina Hingis won 2016 St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy

  • Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner
    Martina Hingis on 14 February 2016 won the 2016 St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy in
    St. Petersburg, Russia.
  • To win the title, the top-seeded
    Indo-Swiss pair defeated the Russian-Czech team of Vera Dushevina and Barbora Krejcikova
    by 6-3 6-1 in the women’s doubles final.
  • For the duo, the victory in the
    final was consequent 40 match win. Also, the title was the fourth in the 2016
    season and the 13th overall.

Belgian Hugo Broos appointed as Cameroon’s new football coach
  • The Cameroon Football Federation
    has announced that Belgian coach Hugo Broos was appointed as the new coach of
    the national team.
  • The 63-year-old former defender
    of Anderlecht and Club Brugge coached the two Belgian teams and also trained
    Turkey’s Trabzonspor and UAE’s Al-Jazira, among others, reports Efe.
  • Broos’s assistant will be his
    compatriot Sven Vandenbroeck, the governing body said on Saturday.

West Indies beats India to win their first U-19 World Cup

  • The West Indies produced an
    outstanding bowling performance to outclass India by five wickets in the final
    match to win their maiden U-19 World Cup cricket tournament at the Sher-e-Bangla
    National Stadium here on Sunday.
  • Batting first, India were bundled
    out for a meagre 145 runs in 45.1 overs, thanks to Ryan John (3-38) and Alzarri
    Joseph (3-39).
  • In reply, Keacy Carty scored a
    match-winning knock of unbeaten 52 alongside Keemo Paul (40 not out) as the
    Windies chased down the total, reaching the target in 49.3 overs.
  • Bangladesh all-rounder Mehedi
    Hasan was awarded the Player of the Series trophy.

World –
Sindh becomes first Pakistan province to adopt Hindu Marriage Bill

  • Pakistan’s Sindh Assembly today
    passed the Hindu Marriage Bill making the province the first in the country to
    allow the minority community to register their marriages, amid calls from a
    leading Hindu group to remove a controversial clause in the landmark bill.
  • The bill, moved in the assembly
    by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nisar Khuhro, will apply to entire Sindh
    province, which has a sizeable population of Hindus.
  • It was passed after a national
    parliamentary panel last week cleared its draft, paving way for registration of
    marriage and divorce for the Hindu community in Pakistan.
  • The bill fixes the minimum age of
    marriage at 18.
  • According to the bill, it is
    necessary that a marriage is solemnised after consent of both male and female
    and at least two witnesses must be present at the time of the solemnisation and
    registration of the marriage.
  • According to the bill, every
    marriage being solemnised under this act will be registered with the union
    council/ward within 45 days of the solemnisation.

Biocon gets its first generics approval in the European Union

  • Biopharma major Biocon has
    received its first generic formulations approval in the regulated markets for a
    drug to reduce cholesterol. The company will begin selling its Rosuvastatin
    Calcium tablets indicated for hyperlipidemia or mixed dyslipidemia in 15
    European countries starting financial year 2017.
  • Biocon was the first generic
    company to receive Certificate of Suitability (CEP) for the formulation from
    the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM) and will
    collaborate with regional partners to market the drug. The move will allow the
    company to address a $1.2 billion opportunity that exists in Europe.
  • The approval will also make it
    easier for Biocon to get regulatory clearance to sell its drugs in emerging
    markets which follow what US and European regulators say. It will also boost
    Biocon’s generic formulations business which is targeting 20-25 filings over
    the next few years.

Obituaries –
Indian Ambassador to Tajikistan Biraja Prasad passes away

  • Biraja Prasad, who was posted
    recently as Ambassador to Tajikistan, passed away on Saturday following a
    massive cardiac arrest.
  • Mr. Prasad, who belonged to
    Odisha, suffered a heart attack during sleep, family sources said here. Prasad,
    a career diplomat, had joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1998.
  • He had held different diplomatic
    assignments such as third secretary and then second secretary (Political) in
    Embassy of India, Moscow (Russian Federation) from 2000 to 2002 and Second
    Secretary (Political and Commercial).

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This post was last modified on July 20, 2019 10:16 am