Current Affairs Update – 23rd August, 2016

• On the lines of the gaming
  sensation Pokemon Go, Axis Bank has come up with its augmented reality feature
  within its mobile app which lists all the dining destinations, property lists,
  shopping centres, bank ATMs, branches and many other things not only as a
  location on GPS but also in real life pictures along with distance and even
  directions.
• Sethi said that a customer can
  open the banking app and click on the ‘Near Me’ option, it will switch on the
  GPS location and the camera of the phone. This will enable the customer to scan
  the area around him and the app will list out all the possible places where the
  customer can get attractive deals.
• The private sector lender’s
  initiative gathers significance at a time when banks are taking steps to become
  a part of the customer’s regular consumption needs. While tying up with
  e-commerce and retail partners is one part of the game, the other is making
  them easily accessible to its customers. The ‘Near Me’ feature is a huge step
  in that direction.

• The Maharashtra government today
  signed an agreement with Civil Aviation Ministry and the Airports Authority of India
  for developing 10 airports in the state under the centre’s regional
  connectivity scheme (RCS).
• RCS, which is part of ambitious
  National Civil Aviation Policy 2016, is aimed at developing regional
  connectivity through fiscal support and infrastructure development from the
  centre.
• The 10 airports – Kolhapur,
  Shirdi, Amravati, Gondia, Nashik, Jalgaon, Nanded, Solapur, Ratnagiri and
  Sindhudurg will be developed, wherein state will contribute 20 percent cost of
  Viability Gap Funding, whereas the centre will bear the remaining 80 percent
  cost.
• As per the MoU, the state
  government will reduce the Local Body Tax (LBT) on air fuel from existing 10
  percent to 1 percent for a period of 10 years. The MoU states that government
  will provide essential land free of cost.

• India and Germany on 22 August
  2016 signed an agreement to foster conditions that will help create and improve
  workplace-based vocational training in India’s industrial clusters.
• The agreement was signed between
  the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and German International
  Cooperation (GIZ).

• Under the pact, German technical
  assistance will be used to enhance industry institute partnerships between
  Indian and German organizations.
• It will help build capacity of
  local training institutions and foster industry linkages which will help adapt
  elements of the German dual system into the Indian context.
• It will initiate a new project
  focused on adapting elements of the German dual system in select industrial
  clusters in India.
• The project will run for three
  years starting August 2016 with a budget of 22.6 crore rupees made available by
  the German Government.
• It will be implemented in three
  selected clusters, which include the Automobile cluster in Maharashtra and
  Electronics cluster in Bangalore.

• Reliance Communications (RCom)has
  launched content delivery network ‘Fast Edge’ for faster delivery of web
  content to users.
• Fast Edge puts content closer to
  India’s 350 million plus eyeballs than any other content delivery platform with
  mostcost-efficient access available in the market, company officials told
  reporters here.
• It is designed to take ‘Digital
  India’ from promise to fruition, they added.

• Tech giant Microsoft has acquired
  artificial intelligence (AI)-based scheduling service Genee that simplifies the
  scheduling and rescheduling of large group meetings for companies.
• Microsoft will integrate the AI
  technology into Office 365 before shutting down Genee.
• Co-founders Ben Cheung and
  Charles Lee, who plan to join Microsoft, started Genee in 2014 to simplify the
  time-consuming task of scheduling (and rescheduling) meetings.
• Genee uses natural language
  processing and optimised decision-making algorithms so that interacting with a
  virtual assistant is just like interacting with a human one.

• India has figured among the top
  10 wealthiest countries in the world with a total individual wealth of $5,600
  billion while the United States topped the chart.
• According to a report by New
  World Wealth, India was ranked seventh, ahead of Canada ($4,700 billion),
  Australia ($4,500 billion) and Italy ($4,400 billion), which came in at eighth,
  ninth and 10th slots, respectively.
• The US is the wealthiest in the
  world in terms of total individual wealth held ($48,900 billion), while China
  stood second and Japan third, with total individual wealth of $17,400 billion
  and $15,100 billion, respectively.
• Others in the top 10 club include
  the United Kingdom (fourth) with a total individual wealth of $9,200 billion,
  followed by Germany (fifth, $9,100 billion) and France (sixth, $6,600 billion).

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• V P Singh Badnore on 22 August
  2016 took oath as the new Governor of Punjab. He was also sworn in as the
  Administrator of Chandigarh Administration.
• Punjab and Haryana High Court
  Chief Justice S J Vazifdar administered the oath of office and secrecy to
  Badnore at Punjab Raj Bhawan in Chandigarh.
• Badnore replaced Kaptan Singh
  Solanki, who is the Governor of Haryana. Solanki had been holding additional charge
  of Punjab Governor and Administrator of Chandigarh Administration since January
  2015.

• Banwarilal Purohit on 22 August
  2016 was sworn in as the Governor of Assam.
• Chief Justice of Gauhati High
  Court Ajit Singh administered the oath of office and secrecy to Purohit at the
  Raj Bhavan in Gauhati.
• Purohit succeeded Padmanabha
  Balakrishna Acharya, Governor of Nagaland who was Governor in-charge of Assam.

• Senior BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi
  was on 22 August 2016 sworn in as the 12th Lieutenant Governor of the Union
  Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• He was administered the oath of
  office and oath of secrecy by Justice Girish Chandra Gupta, acting chief
  justice of Calcutta High Court.
• Mukhi Succeeded Lt General A K
  Singh (Retd) who was appointed in July 2013. Earlier, he had been a minister
  and Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly in the past. 

• Luxury carmaker Volvo Auto has
  announced the appointment of Nalin Jain as the new Chief Financial Officer and
  Jyoti Malhotra as the Director, Sales, Marketing and PR for India operations.
• The Swedish carmaker has also
  roped in Rajeev Chauhan as the Network Director.
• The appointments are said to
  further intensify the highly experienced management team at Volvo Auto India.

• The Union Government on 22 August
  2016 announced the National Sports Awards. Olympic Medalists PV Sindhu and
  Sakshi Malik will get Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awards.
• Shooter Jitu Rai and Gymnast Dipa
  Karmakar have also been selected for the top national sports award.
• National Sports Awards are given
  every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports.

• Four sports person from different
  discipline of sports were chosen for the award and they are P.V. Sindhu for
  Badminton, Dipa Karmakar for Gymnastics, Jitu Rai for Shooting and Sakshi Malik
  for Wrestling.

• Six sports coaches will be
  honoured with Dronacharya Awards and they are Nagapuri Ramesh for Athletics,
  Sagar Mal Dhayal for Boxing, Raj Kumar Sharma for Cricket, Bishweshwar Nandi
  for Gymnastics, S Pradeep Kumar for Swimming (Lifetime) and Mahabir Singh for
  Wrestling (Lifetime).
• Dipa Karmakar’s coach Bishweshwar
  Nandi will receive the award for Gymnastics.

• India on 22 August 2016 won the
  four-match test series against West India 2-0. Fifth day’s play in the fourth
  test in Port of Spain was called off due to rain.
• West Indies was 62-2 in its first
  innings with only 22 over bowled in the entire match.
• The draw in the last and final
  test helped Pakistan to be number one position in ICC Test rankings displacing
  India. India needed to win the fourth test to retain their top spot. Pakistan
  takes the top spot for the first time after its 2-2 test series draw with
  England.

• A book titled The Ocean of Churn:
  How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History authored by Sanjeev Sanyal was
  released on 10 August 2016.
• The book narrated the history of
  The Indian Ocean, which stretches across East Africa, the Middle East and the
  Indian subcontinent to South East Asia and Australia.
• In the book, Sanyal narrates a
  fascinating tale about the earliest human migrations out of Africa and the
  great cities of Angkor and Vijayanagar, medieval Arab empires and Chinese
  treasure fleets, the rivalries of European colonial powers and a new dawn.
• The book offers exciting
  revelation while exploring remote archaeological sites, ancient inscriptions,
  maritime trading networks and half-forgotten oral histories.

• Legendary journalist George E.
  Curry, considered the ‘dean of black press columnists’, passed away on 20
  August 2016 in Maryland, USA.
• Curry mainly reported on racism,
  poverty and national politics for newspapers. He most recently wrote a
  syndicated column that ran in more than 200 black-owned newspapers.