Current Affairs Update – 20th May, 2016

Hello and welcome to exampundit. Here are the important Current Affairs of 20th May, 2016. These are important for the upcoming UIIC AO 2016, SBI PO & SBI Clerk Mains 2016 Exams.

• Apple Inc on Thursday signed an
  MoU with a city-based engineering college for women, G.Narayanamma Institute of
  Technology & Science for Women, choosing the institution as a centre for
  excellence, the third in the world, for launching MAC lab-based training.
• Apple chief executive officer Tim
  Cook and his 10-member team spent 40 minutes at the college at Shaikpet near
  Gachibowli. As part of the MoU, Apple contributed a research-oriented App
  development MAC lab with 33 high-end Apple computers and a projector.
• Forty-four students (four each
  from 11  branches of engineering) were
  selected, on the basis of their academic performance, for a year-long training
  programme. The students will be imparted training for eight hours a week for 10
  weeks at Apple’s new facility on Mac iOS and related future  Apps, and they will do a project for Apple
  later.

• India’s leading passenger vehicle
  maker, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) has signed a Memorandum of
  Understanding (MoU) with the Chhattisgarh Transport Department to set up a new
  Institute of Driving & Traffic Research at Naya Raipur, the state capital.
• The MoU was signed by O P Pal,
  Adl. Commissioner of Transport & Jt. Secretary, Government of Chhattisgarh
  and Mahesh Rajoria, Associate Vice President Driving Training, Maruti Suzuki
  India Limited. Present at the signing ceremony were Rajesh Munat, Hon’ble
  Transport Minister, xyz, Secretary (transport), Govt. of Chhattisgarh, dignitaries
  from the government and officers from Maruti Suzuki.
• As per the MoU, Chattisgarh
  government will provide the land and infrastructure for the project, while
  Maruti Suzuki, with an experience in imparting safe driving training for over
  16 years will manage and run the facility. Maruti Suzuki will provide training
  equipment vehicles and simulators and skilled trainers.
• The main objective of the IDTR
  will be to promote road safety in Chhattisgarh through awareness, education,
  and training amongst road users. Maruti Suzuki will conduct refresher for heavy
  motor vehicle drivers, commercial vehicle drivers and drivers of vehicles
  carrying hazardous goods at a very nominal fees. Maruti Suzuki will also
  organize road safety awareness campaigns for children.

• Telenor Financial Services , IDFC
  Bank and Dilip Shanghvi on Friday jointly announced the withdrawal of the
  ongoing efforts to form a payments bank venture in India.
• The decision, collectively made
  by the three partners, will be communicated to Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
  Consequently, the payment bank licence will not be pursued.
• “Telenor Financial Services
  and IDFC Bank have rich experience from offering financial services and the
  intention of the JV was to combine our expertise to launch a robust payment
  bank service in India. Following the mutual decision to withdraw these plans,
  the payment bank license will not be pursued”, Dilip Shanghvi said on
  behalf of Dilip Shanghvi Family & Associates (DSA) in an official
  statement.
• Last September, Dilip Shanghvi as
  lead applicant along with Telenor Financial Services and IDFC Bank was granted
  in-principle licence by RBI to form a payments bank in India.
• Over the past eight months,
  representatives of these three partners had worked together to establish
  relevant frameworks and a governance structure for the proposed joint venture
  (JV).

• President Pranab Mukherjee on 19
  May 2016 inaugurated an Intelligent Operations Centre (IOC) in Rashtrapati
  Bhavan.
• President Mukherjee also launched
  a Mobile App Monitor for transformation of President’s Estate into a smart township.

• The IOC is a software solution
  designed by IBM.
• It helps collect and make sense
  of the rich data streaming in from several sources within the Estate to provide
  intelligent insights.
• It offers integrated data visualization,
  near real-time collaboration and deep analytics that will help agencies prepare
  for problems, coordinate and manage response efforts and enhance efficiency of
  services.

• The Union Minister of Health and
  Family Welfare J P Nadda on 19 May 2016 launched the Centre for Environmental
  Health in New Delhi.
• The centre was launched to assess
  the impact of environment-related problems like air pollution, climate change,
  pesticide use and sanitation on health.

• It is a joint initiative of the
  Public Health Foundation of India and the Tata Institute of Social Science.
• The centre will conduct research
  across a range of environmental health issues, including chemical exposure,
  water and hygiene.
• Its mandate also includes
  capacity-building, advocacy, outreach and remedial issues.
• The research component of the
  centre is going to be an important aspect for the government to follow.

• Senior CPI(M) leader and
  politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan is set to become the next Chief Minister of
  Kerala. A decision to this effect was taken by the state committee of the party
  that met here this morning.
• This will be formally announced
  later in the evening, sources in the Left Democratic Front (LDF) said.
• The central leadership, it is
  learnt, has extended its concurrence with this decision.
• Contender V.S. Achuthanandan,
  Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing assembly and himself a former chief
  minister, has been sounded on this, sources said.
• Achuthanandan was specially
  invited to the meeting of the state committee for the purpose.
• Pinarayi’s choice was a foregone
  conclusion after the LDF won a close to two-thirds majority in the elections.

• Former Finance Secretary Ratan P
  Watal has been appointed as Principle Adviser for social sector in Niti Aayog.
• He has been appointed to the post
  for three years, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.
• The new appointment for Watal
  comes a fortnight after his two-month extended tenure ended in April. He was to
  retire in February. However, Watal later got a two-month extension as Finance
  Secretary.
• Watal, a retired IAS officer of
  Andhra Pradesh cadre, had been Finance Secretary between August last year and
  April this year.

• Taiwan has inaugurated its first
  female president.
• Tsai Ing-wen will confront major
  challenges in her new role, including navigating what seem certain to be
  increasingly fractious relations with Beijing and rejuvenating the island’s
  flagging economy.
• Tsai took the oath of office
  Friday at the Presidential Office Building in the capital Taipei before a
  national flag and portrait of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China
  that relocated to Taiwan in 1949 as the communists swept to power on the
  Chinese mainland.
• China claims Taiwan as its own
  territory and has responded to Tsai’s election by intensifying pressure on the
  island with military exercises, diplomatic moves and cross-border deportations.

• Indian journalist and Councillor
  Philip Abraham was on 19 May 2016 elected unanimously as the Deputy Mayor of
  Loughton town in the United Kingdom. Councillor Abraham was presented with the
  Deputy Mayor’s Badge by Carol Davis, the newly-elected mayor.
• V K Krishna Menon was the first
  person from Kerala to become a Councillor in Britain. He was a Labour
  Councillor for the Borough of St Pancras from 1934 to 1939.

• Cairn India, the petroleum
  exploration arm of London-listed Vedanta Resources, on Friday announced that
  its managing director and chief executive (CEO) Mayank Ashar has resigned for
  ‘personal reasons’ with effect from June 5, 2016.
• Ashar will be replaced by the
  company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Sudhir Mathur as acting CEO who will
  continue to work closely with the leadership team in managing the business
  under the guidance of the Board, the company said in a statement.

• An Indian-American
  biotechnologist Rupa Iyer was on 19 May 2016 awarded with the University of
  Houston’s Distinguished Leadership in Teaching Excellence Award, the highest teaching
  award of United States.
• Iyer was awarded for her
  sustained and significant contributions to education. She is an Associate Dean
  at Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Houston’s College of
  Technology.

• Indian American professor Rakesh
  K Jain on 19 May 2016 received the US National Medal of Science from the US
  President Barack Obama.
• He received the honour along with
  16 other winners of the National Medal of Science and National Medal of
  Technology and Innovation at a White House ceremony.
• Jain is a professor at Harvard
  Medical School and Director of the Tumour Biology Laboratory at Massachusetts
  General Hospital.
• He was selected for the award in
  December 2015. The award function was initially scheduled for 22 January 2016
  but was postponed due to a major snow storm.

Regards

Team ExamPundit