Current Affairs Update – 1st March, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 1st March, 2016. These are important for the last phase of LIC AAO 2016 and also for the upcoming Interviews.

• India today signed a loan
  agreement with multilateral lending agency World Bank for $300 million for
  Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Quality Improvement Project.
• The objective of the project is
  to improve student outcomes especially of disadvantaged groups in selected
  Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and to increase the effectiveness of the
  Higher Education System in Madhya Pradesh, a finance ministry statement said.
• The agreement was signed between
  Department of Economic Affairs Joint Secretary Raj Kumar on behalf of India and
  World Bank’s Country Director Onno Ruhl on behalf of World Bank.
• The project has three components
  that include grants support to higher education Institutions, State Level
  Initiatives and improving system management, the statement said.

• The Centre’s green panel has
  given approval to the Rs 4,640.88-crore Kiru hydroelectric power project to be
  developed on Chenab river in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Last month in a meeting, the
  Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Union Environment Ministry had examined
  the proposal.
• Based on its recommendations, the
  ministry will soon take a call on giving the final green nod.
• The Kiru project will be
  developed by Chenab Valley Power Projects Pvt Ltd, a joint venture among NHPC,
  J&K State Power Development Corporation and Power Trading Corporation of
  India.
• The project envisages
  construction of a 123 metre (from river bed level) high concrete gravity dam
  across river Chenab with four intakes, four pressure shafts, an underground
  powerhouse of four units of 156 MW each. The construction period of the project
  is 54 months.

• UltraTech Cement Limited on 28
  February 2016 entered into a binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with
  Jaiprakash Associates Limited for the acquisition of its identified cement
  plants for an enterprise value of 16500 crore rupees.
• The cement plants of Jaiprakash
  Associates to be acquired have a cement capacity of 22.4 mtpa situated in the
  states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Anadhra
  Pradesh and Karnataka.
• Under the deal, UltraTech will
  pay an additional 470 crore rupees for completion of the grinding unit for 4
  mtpa capacity under implementation.

• Piramal Enterprises has acquired
  US-based healthcare software firm Adaptive Software for $24.5 million. The
  payment will be made in a staggered fashion, part of which will be made only if
  the company achieves performance targets.
• The acquisition will take place
  through Piramal’s US subsidiary, Decision Resources Group, Piramal said in a
  BSE statement.
• Adaptive sells a suite of
  software products to US-based Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and health
  insurers, both of which must maintain complex pharmacy benefit design data
  accurately and in real-time (e.g. drug lists, formularies, restriction, and
  pricing). These products streamline prescription formulary management, pharmacy
  networking, pricing, and pharmacy benefit design.
• In fiscal years 2013, 2014 and
  2015, Adaptive’s revenues on a cash basis were $0.6 million, $2.0 million and
  $3.2 million, respectively.

• President Pranab Mukherjee on 27
  February 2016 formally declared Kerala as the first digital state of India. The
  declaration was made after President launched a digital empowerment campaign in
  Kozhikode aimed at bridging the digital divide by 2020.
• Besides the digital empowerment
  campaign, President Mukherjee also inaugurated Cyber Park, IT Park under the
  Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society. He also launched the Kanivu
  Scheme and dedicated the Gender Park of the Department of Social Justice.
• The State has a mobile
  tele-density of 95 percent and internet covered over 60 percent of the
  population.

• Union Government on 29 February
  2016 constituted a committee to consider Scheduled Tribe status to six
  Communities of Assam. The committee will be headed by Special Secretary
  (Internal Security) Ministry of Home Affairs, Mahesh Kumar Singla.
• The committee will recommend the
  modalities for granting of Scheduled Tribe status to six Communities namely
  Koch Rajbongshi, Moran, Matak, Tai Ahom, Chutia and Adivasi (Tea Tribes) in
  Assam.
• The Committee will submit its
  report by 31 May 2016.

• Indira Gandhi International
  Airport (IGIA) on 29 February 2016 received three international awards,
  including for best airport by size in the Asia Pacific region.
• The ranking was announced by the
  ACI — a trade association of the world’s airports founded in 1991 — for the
  2015 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards.
• Delhi airport has retained the
  world’s number one position for the second consecutive year in 25 to 40 Million
  Passengers Per Annum category. The two other awards are for best airport by
  size & region Asia Pacific (25-40 MPPA) and second best airport by region
  (Asia Pacific). In retaining the title, the IGIA scored 4.96 on a scale of 1 to
  5 in the ASQ survey.
• IGIA is managed by Delhi
  International Airport Ltd (DIAL) — a joint venture between the GMR Group,
  Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Fraport.
• Rajiv Gandhi International
  Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad has featured among the world’s top thee airports
  for the seventh year in a row in Airports Council International’s (ACI’s)
  airport service quality (ASQ) ranking.

• Jet Airways’ chief financial
  officer Amit Agarwal has been given the additional charge of acting chief
  executive officer.
• This follows the resignation of
  his predecessor Cramer Ball last December. Agarwal joined the airline last
  December and has over two decades experience in leadership roles in India,
  Europe and North America.
• Last week the airline announced
  appointment of Rahul Taneja as its chief people officer.

• V B Fadnavis has taken over as
  regional executive director(South) of NTPC Limited.
• Prior to this appointment he was
  the executive director of NTPC Sipat in Chattisgarh.
• A graduate of mechanical
  engineering from Devi Ahilya Viswa Vidyalay, Indore and also an M.Tech in
  Thermal Engineering from IIT, Delhi, Fadnavis had joined NTPC as engineering
  executive trainee in 1979.

• RH Muralidhara has been appointed
  as Director -Defence Business and Member of the Board of BEML Limited, a Public
  Sector undertaking under the Ministry of Defence. He took charge on Tuesday.
• Graduated in mechanical
  engineering from Malnad College of Engineering, Hassan, Muralidhara joined BEML
  in 1983.
• He has served in various
  capacities in different functional areas of the company like production,
  quality engineering and planning prior to becoming director.
• Muralidhara was the Chief General
  Manager -Defence Production at KGF Complex.

• Former SpiceJet executive Sanjiv
  Kapoor today joined Vistara as its Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer.
• Kapoor will be responsible for
  managing a wide portfolio of Vistara’s commercial and planning functions,
  including strategy development, network planning, pricing and revenue
  management, sales and distribution, among others, Vistara said in a release.
• Kapoor succeeds Giam Ming Toh,
  who is returning to Singapore Airlines on completion of his deputation with
  Vistara.
• Tata Sons holds a majority 51%
  stake in Vistara – a joint venture with Singapore Airlines, which holds the
  remaining 49%.

• Rahul Sachdev on 29 February 2016
  won the 1st All India Open Invitational Snooker Championship 2016 in
  Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
• This tournament was organized by
  Billiards and Snooker Association of Aurangabad and had no relation with Cue
  Sports India.
• Rahul defeated Pushpender Singh
  of Railways in the final with 5-3 Score. Though Pushpender emerged as a strong
  contender and had lost only one frame before reaching the final while Rahul
  scored a break of 104.

• Car racer Armaan Ebrahim on 28
  February 2016 was awarded the Motorsports Man-of-the-Year Trophy at ceremony
  organised by the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI).
• Ebrahim was presented with the
  Raymond Gautam Singhania Rolling Trophy and cash prize of 2 lakh rupees for his
  performance in the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia Series.
• On the other hand, B.I. Chandhok
  received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to motorsports in
  the country.

• Oscar winning actor George
  Kennedy, who won Academy Award for the 1960s classic Cool Hand Luke, died in
  the city of Boise, Idaho on 28 February 2016. He was 91.
• He won an Oscar in 1968 as Best
  Supporting Actor for portraying Dragline (a savage chain-gang convict) opposite
  Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. The movie garnered four Academy Award
  nominations, and Kennedy was named best supporting actor.
• He won an Oscar in 1968 for Best
  Supporting Actor for portraying Dragline (a savage chain-gang convict) opposite
  Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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