Current Affairs Update – 24th July, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 24th July, 2015. These are Important for the 2nd phase of RBI Assistant 2015 Exam.

• Infrastructure
  financing firm IDFC Ltd today said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted
  banking licence to IDFC Bank for undertaking banking business in the country.
• “The RBI
  on July 23, 2015 has granted Banking Licence to IDFC Bank Limited for
  undertaking banking business in India under Section 22(1) of the Banking
  Regulation Act, 1949,” IDFC said in a stock exchange filing.
• IDFC and
  Bandhan Financial Services Pvt Ltd emerged successful out of 25 contenders for
  new bank licences issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in April last year.
  Bandhan Financial got RBI approval last month.
• IDFC Bank
  plans to start operation from October 1 with an initial loan book of around Rs
  55,000 crore. The bank proposes to start operations with 20 branches.
• It has almost
  completed the process of demerger of financial undertaking into IDFC Bank.
• The demerger
  was in accordance with RBI conditions which require IDFC to transfer the
  relevant business activities to the proposed IDFC Bank.

• World Trade
  Organization (WTO) members on 24 July 2015 struck a deal to add more than 200
  products to the list of goods covered by zero-tariff and duty-free trade.
• In value
  terms, the deal cuts tariffs on 1 trillion US dollar worth of information
  technology (IT) products, which is equal to global trade in iron, steel,
  textiles and clothing combined.
• The deal was
  agreed as part of need to update the 18-year old Information Technology
  Agreement (ITA) as it has become redundant.
• Products
  added range from advanced computer chips to GPS devices, medical equipment,
  printer cartridges and video-game consoles.
• This will
  give a major boost to producers of goods ranging from video games to medical
  equipment. Technology manufacturers such as General Electric, Intel, Texas
  Instruments, Microsoft and Nintendo are among the many companies expected to benefit
  from the deal.

• Anil
  Ambani-led Reliance Group through its entity Reliance Unmanned Systems on 23
  July 2015 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Augur Overseas
  Operation of Singapore to manufacture Aerostats and Airships in India.
• As per the
  MoU, both the parties will collaborate on new technologies for the civil and
  military market as part of the Make in India initiative of Union Government.
  The two companies have agreed to form a joint venture (JV) firm with Reliance
  having 51 percent stake as per Government’s policy.
• The joint
  venture will be involved in development, production, sales, modification and
  life support for different sizes of Aerostats and Airships. This JV will
  address the requirements of domestic market and also addressable regional/global
  markets.
• The Augur
  Overseas Operation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Augur Aeronautical Centre.

• Indian drug
  company Lupin on 23 July 2015 acquired US generics company GAVIS
  Pharmaceuticals and Novel Laboratories (GAVIS) for 880 million US dollars to
  strengthen its presence in the United States.
• The deal is
  cash-free and debt-free and it will be funded by a bridge loan, with 10 crore
  rupees from existing cash reserves deployed for it.
• With this
  acquisition, Lupin will get access to a host of specialty generic drugs and
  niche products, mainly in dermatology, gastro-intestinal and injectables.
  GAVIS’s New-Jersey based manufacturing facility will become Lupin’s first
  manufacturing site in the US.
• Both the
  companies will now have a portfolio of 101 in-market products, 164 cumulative
  filings pending approval and a deep pipeline of products under development for
  the US. The acquisition creates the fifth largest portfolio of ANDA filings
  with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

• IT companies
  CSC and HCL Technologies have signed an agreement to form a banking software
  and services company to provide technology services and solutions to the
  banking industry.
• The joint
  venture will invest in platform modernisation and product functionality
  enhancement and will capitalise on the proven capabilities of both companies in
  addressing the multi-billion-dollar, global core banking software market.
• CSC, which
  serves over 100 premier banking and financial services clients in 15 countries,
  will provide its core banking, cards, payments and default management industry
  talent, software and product development expertise, the release added.
• HCL will
  provide capital investment, its experience in product engineering and
  application implementation services, as well as banking sales and client
  engagement expertise.

• Food Safety
  Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on 23 July 2015 proposed draft Food Safety
  and Standards Regulations, 2015. The draft in its ambit seeks to regulate
  Health Supplements, Nutraceuticals, Foods for Special Dietary Uses, Foods for
  Special Medical Purpose, Functional Foods, and Novel Food.
• FSSAI may ban
  the trade of these foods if it is found that the food being placed in the
  market is nor clearly distinguishable from the foods for normal consumption or
  are not suitable for their claimed nutritional purpose or may endanger the
  human health.

• No person
  shall manufacture, pack, sell, offer for sale, market or otherwise distribute
  or import any food products referred to in the draft regulations unless they
  comply with the requirements laid down under these regulations.
• The
  formulation of the foods shall be based on sound medical or nutritional
  principles and supported by validated scientific data, wherever required.
• Every package
  of food or health supplements shall carry the words FOOD or HEALTH SUPPLEMENT
  and the term ‘NOT FOR MEDICINAL USE’ shall be prominently written on the label.
• It is
  proposed to fix the limit on maximum usage levels per day for the milk of cow,
  buffalo and camel, ghee, curd, butter, honey, gold, gold foil, silver, pearl in
  ayurveda, siddha and unani ingredients based products.
• Benefits of
  specialty foods containing ingredients based on ayurveda, unani and siddha and
  other traditional health systems of India, should be shown by science based
  evidence.
• No hormones
  or steroids or psychotropic ingredients shall be added in these foods.

• The Supreme
  Court on 23 July 2015 held that fundamental right given under Article 19(1)(g)
  of the Constitution does not give an institution or a person or a citizen the
  fundamental right to affiliate or recognition of their institutions within the
  meaning of the Article 19(6).
• Article 19(6)
  providing for reasonable restrictions on fundamental rights reads, “Nothing in
  the 19(1)(g) shall prevent the State from making a law with respect to
  providing necessary professional or technical qualification for practising any
  profession or carrying on any occupation, trade or business.”
• On the other
  hand, Article 19(1)(g) says that the citizens have been conferred the right to
  practice any profession or carry on any occupation, trade or business.
• The decision
  of the SC bench comprising of Justice MY Eqbal and Justice Arun Mishra relied
  on 1993 judicial case which said that “education has always been treated in
  this country as religious and charitable activity and making it commercial is
  opposed to the ethos, tradition and sensibilities of this nation. A citizen of
  this country may have a right to establish an educational institution but no
  citizen, person or institution has a right, much less of fundamental right, to
  affiliation or recognition.”

• Maharashtra
  Cabinet on 23 July 2015 approved Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Jan Van Vikas Scheme.
  The scheme proposed by Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar in the state’s annual
  budget 2015-16 aims at creation of comprehensive development of villages in the
  buffer zones of tiger reserves and around them.
• Its
  objectives are to reduce the man-animal conflict and achieve sustainable
  development of these villages. The scheme also aims at reducing the dependence
  of villagers on the forest.
• The scheme
  will seek to boost the supplementary businesses to farming activities and
  create alternative employment possibilities in these areas. The scheme will be
  launched on project basis from 2015-16 to 2019-2020.

• International
  Management Institute (IMI) Kolkata has signed an agreement with the Sinchuan
  University of China for exchange of students and researchers and joint work
  programmes.
• The agreement
  was signed by Arindam Banik, Director, IMI Kolkata, and Xie Heping, President,
  Sinchuan University, last week, IMI said in a release.
• Based on the
  agreement, four students from Sinchuan University shall be spending a trimester
  in IMI Kolkata.

• Earth-like
  exoplanet Kepler 452b was discovered by Kepler Mission. The discovery of it was
  made public during the NASA press conference on 23 July 2015. It resides in a
  year-long orbit in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star in the constellation
  of Cygnus some 1400 light-years away.
• The planet is
  a near-twin of Earth orbiting Sunlike Star and is estimated to 1.6 times (60
  percent) larger than Earth.
• It is likely
  rocky and could have a mass of anywhere between one to five times that of our
  own planet.
• In addition
  to Kepler 452b, the Kepler Mission also discovered 11 yet-to-be-confirmed
  candidate planets that appear to be small, rocky and potentially suitable for
  life.
• One of them,
  presently known only as KOI-7235.01, looks to be only 15 percent larger than
  Earth, and orbits right in the middle of its star’s habitable zone. If
  confirmed, it would surpass even Kepler 452 b to become the most Earth-like
  world astronomers have ever found beyond our solar system.

• The world’s
  first malaria vaccine called RTS,S or Mosquirix on 24 July 2015 got approval
  from European Medicines Agency (EMA).
• The vaccine
  was licensed for use on babies aged between 6 weeks and 17 months in Africa,
  which is at the highest risk of the mosquito-borne disease.
• The vaccine
  developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with the PATH
  Malaria Vaccine Initiative, would be the first licensed human vaccine against a
  parasitic disease and could help prevent millions of cases of malaria.
• The vaccine
  is also part-funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and it was in
  development since 1987 under a team of researchers led by Joe Cohen, a GSK
  scientist.

• First All
  Women Trans Continental Road Expedition from Delhi to London was flagged off on
  23 July 2015. The expedition, which started from Major Dhyanchand Stadium of
  New Delhi, was flagged off by Union Minister of Chemical and Fertilizers,
  Ananth Kumar and Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs &
  Sports Sarbananda Sonowal.
• The three
  woman participants, namely Nidhi Tiwari, Rashmi Koppar and Soumaya Goel, will
  reach United Kingdom in 55 days. During the journey they will cover a distance of
  15000 kms via Myanmar, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia,
  Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium and France.
• This all
  women team will be travelling in one vehicle without any backup vehicle and the
  journey will be sponsored by Mahindra First Choice Wheels Limited.

• Nobel Prize
  winner Professor Peter Higgs on 20 July 2015 won the world’s oldest scientific
  prize, the Royal Society’s Copley Medal. With this, 86-year old Higgs joined
  the ranks of Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
• He was
  awarded the medal for his fundamental contribution to particle physics and his
  pioneering work on the theory of the Higgs boson that explains the origin of
  mass in elementary particles. The presence of Higgs boson was confirmed by the
  experiments at Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012.
• Modern
  physics suggests that matter consists of a set of particles that act as building
  blocks and that between these particles lie forces that are controlled by
  another set of particles. A fundamental property of the majority of particles
  is that they have a mass.

• Swiss food
  group Nestle has replaced the head of its Indian operations as the company
  battles its worst ever public relations crisis in the country, following a food
  scare that forced it to withdraw its popular instant noodles.
• Nestle India
  said in a statement on Friday that its managing director for India, Etienne
  Benet, would move to the group’s head office in Switzerland.
• He will be
  replaced by Suresh Narayanan, a former Nestle India executive and currently
  chief executive of the company’s Philippines unit. He will take the reins on
  Aug. 1.
• Nestle has
  been at the centre of India’s worst food scare in a decade, after a regulator
  in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in May found excess lead in a sample of
  its hugely popular Maggi noodles.

• 10-year old
  Shubham Jaglan on 22 July 2015 won the IJGA World Stars of Junior Golf event in
  Las Vegas. Jaglan is the son of a milkman from rural Haryana, India.
• He shot a
  three round score of 106 winning by a five-stroke margin, ahead of two
  Americans Justin Dang and Sihan Sandhu and Thailand’s Pongsapak Laopakdee for
  the Boys 9-10 years category title.
• He also
  scripted a scintillating one-stroke win at the Junior World Golf Championships
  that was held at Welk Resort Fountain Course in California.

• The Forbes
  Asia’s Fabulous 50 list of the year 2015 was released on 22 July 2015. The Fab
  50 list is an annual honor roll highlighting some of the brightest stars in the
  Asia Pacific. The companies from China dominate this year’s list that depicts
  the region’s best big publicly traded companies.
• The list was
  dominated by 25 Chinese firms, while India claimed the second-highest number of
  companies in the list with a total of 10 firms. South Korea stood at third
  place with four companies in the list.
• Four
  countries Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore each have two companies
  listed in the list and Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia have one each.
• Indian
  Companies in the list
• The list
  depicts India’s HDFC Bank as the brightest star. HDFC is the second-largest
  bank in India’s private sector, after ICICI Bank. The bank now has a market
  capitalisation of 43 billion US dollar, nearly 32 million customers and a
  network spanning more than 4000 branches in almost 2500 towns and cities.

1. Aurobindo
   Pharma
2. HCL
   Technologies
3. HDFC Bank
4. Lupin
5. Motherson
   Sumi Systems
6. Sun
   Pharmaceutical Industries
7. Tata
   Consultancy Services
8. Tata Motors
9. Tech Mahindra
10. Titan

Regards

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