Current Affairs Update – 24th May, 2016

• The government today announced
  the names of 13 more cities that will be developed under the Centre’s ‘Smart
  City Mission’ with Lucknow in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh topping the list,
  followed by Warangal in Telangana and Dharmashala in Himachal Pradesh.
• Twenty-three cities with the
  higher rankings from as many states and Union terrritories, which failed to get
  representation in the first round of a competition held in January,
  participated in the ‘Fast Track Competition’, the result of which was announced
  by Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today.
• Of these 23 cities, only 13 could
  qualify for the smart city projects through the fresh competition.
• Other cities, which won this
  round, were Chandigarh, Raipur (Chhattisgarh), New Town Kolkata, Bhagalpur
  (Bihar), Panaji (Goa), Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Imphal
  (Manipur), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Faridabad (Haryana).
• The 13 cities selected in the
  Fast Track Competition have proposed a total investment of Rs 30,229 crore.
  With this, the investment proposed by 33 cities (20 cities announced in January
  and 13 cities today) under the smart city plans is now Rs 80, 789 crore.

• IRDAI has imposed a penalty of
  Rs. 35 lakh on Future Generali India Insurance Co for violating various laws
  including the ones related to payments, licensing of insurance agents and file
  and use policy.
• It has asked the company to remit
  the amount within a period of 15 days.
• The company was found to be
  making payments to its intermediaries under accounting heads as support
  services, consultancy that were not reported to the Authority, it said.
• IRDAI said it was in violation of
  Insurance Act and imposed a fine of Rs. 5 lakh for the contravention.
• A similar penalty of Rs. 5 lakh
  was imposed for not giving a clear picture of insurance agents engaged by the
  company.
• Further, the insurer was allowing
  agents to solicit business even after expiry of their license, IRDAI said.

• The World Bank will provide
  assistance of $100 million to the Karnataka Urban Water Supply Modernisation
  project.
• An agreement was signed between
  the Government of India and World Bank on Tuesday.
• The objective of the project is
  to provide city-wide access to a continuous piped water supply in the eligible
  cities in Karnataka and to strengthen the service delivery arrangements at the
  city level.

• PRERNA: It is the primary
  education component of the programme. The objective is to identify gaps in
  primary education and make teachers responsible focusing on them. 100 primary schools
  across the district were identified under the programme.
• Forest rights: The focus will be
  on two aspects -educating people on forest rights and administrative measures
  to settle all issues in relation to community rights of traditional forest dwellers
  in the district.
• Health and sanitation: Community
  Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and awareness campaigns will be conducted to stress
  the linkage between sanitation and health.
• Skill Development: As part of the
  livelihood mission, major initiatives will be undertaken to impart skills that
  include basic masonry, electrical work, home appliances, plumber courses, etc.
• Women empowerment: Various
  stakeholders, including the line departments, Panchayath Raj Institutions,
  Mahila and Yuvak Mandals will be involved in implementing the programme.

• The Union Government on 20 May
  2016 constituted a committee of experts on defence spending.
• The 11-member committee will be
  headed by Lt Gen DB Shekatkar (retd) and include top military officers and
  civilian experts.
• The committee will recommend
  measures to enhance the combat capabilities of the over 13-lakh strong armed
  forces.
• It will also focus on
  re-balanceing the overall defence expenditure in view of the escalating salary
  and pension bills. It was mandated to submit the report in three months.

• Fast Attack Craft INS Tarmugli
  was on 23 May 2016 commissioned into Indian Navy today by Vice Admiral HCS
  Bisht, AVSM, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command at Naval
  Dockyard, Visakhapatnam.
• INS Tarmugli will be based in
  Visakhapatnam under the Naval Officer-in-Charge (Andhra Pradesh) and will be
  deployed for coastal patrol and surveillance operations along the East Coast of
  India.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

• Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)
  Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani was on 17 May 2016 awarded with
  the prestigious Othmer Gold Medal for his entrepreneurial leadership by the
  United States based Chemical Heritage Foundation.
• Ambani was presented the award by
  Carsten Reinhardt, President & CEO of Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF)
  during the occasion of the Heritage Day of CHF at Philadelphia, United States
  of America.
• He was awarded for his
  entrepreneurial leadership that has resulted in:
• Expansion of India’s petroleum
  refining industry
• Creation of the Jamnagar Refinery
  in Gujarat – the largest grassroots petroleum refinery in the world
• Path-breaking initiatives in oil
  and gas exploration.

• Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan
  Chamling was on 22 May 2016 conferred with the Yugkavi Siddhicharan Prize by
  Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli.
• The prestigious literary prize
  was bestowed upon him for his commendable contributions in promoting Nepali
  literature in India.
• The prize was presented on the
  occasion of 105th birth anniversary of the late poet Siddhicharan Shrestha. It
  carries a certificate of appreciation and a sum of 100000 Nepali Rupees.

• British director Ken Loach’s film
  I, Daniel Blake on 22 May 2016 won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival.
• It was Loach’s second award for
  best picture at the festival after 2006’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley.
• Loach is an English film and
  television director.
• He is known for his naturalistic,
  social realist directing style and for his socialist ideals.
• His 1969 film Kes was voted the
  7th greatest British film of the 20th century in a poll by the British Film
  Institute.
• As of 2016, Jane Campion is the
  only female director to have won the Palme d’Or for The Piano.

• Renowned scientist S K Sharma on
  23 May 2016 was appointed the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Nuclear
  Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL).
• Sharma will be responsible for
  design, construction, commissioning and operation of nuclear power reactors. He
  has been appointed to the new post for a period of five years.
• At present, Sharma is working as
  Distinguished Scientist and Director (Operations) in NPCIL.

• Rakesh Kumar Mishra on 19 May
  2016 was appointed the new Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular
  Biology (CCMB) by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

• Mishra is a noted expert in the
  study of function of genes.
• He had joined CCMB in 2001 as a
  senior scientist after stints at the IISc, Bangalore, the University of
  Bordeaux, France, Saint Louise University, USA and the University of Geneva,
  Switzerland for post-doctoral experience.

• Farook Mahmood, Chairman and
  Managing Director of Silverline Realty, a Bengaluru-based real estate broking
  firm, has been elected president of FIABCI.
• FIABCI is an international real
  estate federation and is a business network of real estate professionals
  worldwide. It has members in 65 countries, including 100 professional
  associations, 65 academic institutions and 3,000 individual members from all
  professions of the real estate sector.
• He was elected FIABCI World
  President for 2017-18 in Panama. Farook Mahmood is a graduate in Real Estate
  Management and started off with the real estate division in his family’s
  Furniture House Agency.
• He is also active with the FIABCI
  World Council of Brokers, and was serving its Vice-President.
• FIABCI is the most representative
  organisation of the real estate industry in the world and holds special
  consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United
  Nations.

• United Nations (UN)
  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 20 May 2016 announced the appointments of Mary
  Robinson of Ireland and Macharia Kamau of Kenya as his Special Envoys on El
  Nino and Climate.
• The El Nino weather phenomenon,
  which occurs every two to seven years, affects rainfall patterns and causes
  both drought and flooding.
• The United Nations Special Envoys
  will provide the leadership required to tackle these challenges, raising the
  profile and sounding the alarm.

• The book titled My Favourite
  Nature Stories authored by famous author Ruskin Bond was released on 19 May
  2016.
• In the book, Bond details various
  encounters with the natural world. He offers detailed explanation why he has
  such an overwhelming love for nature.
• Apart from My Favourite Nature
  Stories, Bond also launched another book titled The World Outside My Window. In
  this book, he writes about some of the most interesting insects, birds, trees
  and flowers he has observed.
• Both the books were brought out
  by Rupa Publications to celebrate Ruskin Bond’s 82nd birthday.

• The World Bank Group has launched
  the much anticipated Pandemic Emergency Finance Facility (PEF) — a new
  financing mechanism to quickly mobilise funds to tackle global disease
  outbreaks and create a new insurance market for pandemic risk.
• PEF is expected to bring the much
  needed coordination and speed for future global disease outbreak response
  efforts.
• The PEF facility launch
  announcement came few days ahead of the May 26-27 Summit of Group of Seven
  Leaders in Ise-Shima, Japan. G7 leaders had urged the World Bank Group to
  develop the initiative during their May 2015 summit in Schloss-Elmau, Germany.
• Japan — which holds the G7
  Presidency — became the first donor to the PEF initiative and committed $ 50
  million.

• Mohun Bagan on 21 May 2016
  clinched the Federation Cup title for the 14th time. In the final played at the
  Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati, Bagan defated Aizwal FC 5-0.
• Bagan won this tournament after a
  gap of 8 years (in 2008), when it defeated Dempo 1-0.
• The first half of the match went
  goalless. In the second half, Mizo striker Jeje Lalpekhlua netted two goals,
  while the other three goals were scored by Sony Norde, Dhanachandra Singh and
  Bikramjit Singh.

• India’s ace cueist Pankaj Advani
  on 22 May 2016 won the Asian 6-Red snooker title. To win this tile for the
  first time, he defeated top-seeded Malaysian Keen Hoh Moh 7-5 in the finals
  held in Abu Dhabi.
• To reach the finals, he defeated
  Aditya Mehta, an Indian player, 6-1 in a semi final match.
• With this win, Advani became the
  first in the world to hold both world and continental titles in 6-Red snooker
  at the same time.