Current Affairs Update – 26th May, 2016

• State-owned Oriental Insurance
  has for the first time tied up with a private online insurance broker,
  Coverfox, to sell its comprehensive motor insurance product for both four and
  two wheelers.  
• For Coverfox, which operates the
  online insurance portal coverfox.com, this is the first engagement with a public
  sector general insurer.
• Currently, auto insurance is the
  largest selling category for Coverfox. Founded in 2013, Coverfox sells
  insurance online and offers car insurance, health insurance, home insurance and
  travel insurance.
• Coverfox is the second largest
  online auto insurance provider, besides selling health and travel policies. It
  sells nearly 10,000 policies (auto, health and travel put together) a month and
  is witnessing a steady growth of about 20 per cent month-on-month
• In March 2014, a new report by
  Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Google India estimated that three in every
  four insurance policies sold by 2020 would be influenced by digital channels
  during either the pre-purchase stage, purchase or renewal stages.

• The Union Cabinet on 25 May 2016
  gave ex-post facto approval to the MoU between Indian and Japan for promoting
  sustainable, stable and low-carbon thermal power development in India.
• The Memorandum of Understanding
  (MoU) will help India in formulating suitable policies and developing
  technologies involved in producing sustainable, stable and low-carbon thermal
  power.
• The agreement will support Clean
  Coal Technology (CCT) for thermal power plants such as Ultra Super Critical
  (USC) and other environmental technologies.
• It will also explore
  possibilities for acquisition of carbon credits with bilateral or multilateral
  offset schemes that are anticipated to be materialized in the future as a
  result of low-carbon power development.

• The Union Cabinet chaired by the
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 May 2016 approved for financial
  restructuring of Hindustan Steel Works Construction Limited (HSCL). It also
  approved its takeover by National Buildings Construction Corporation Limited
  (NBCC) to takeover HSCL.
• The decision will benefit in
  economies of scale for NBCC and would assist in better manpower utilization.
  NBCC and HSCL will benefit from each other’s resources and expertise. HSCL will
  be able to fulfill its commitments of execution of projects and the orders.

• The existing paid up equity
  capital of the HSCL is 117.1 crore rupees.
• Under the proposal, Uni0on
  Government non-plan loan and plan loan along with accumulated interest thereon
  and outstanding guarantee fee worth 1502.2 crore rupees.
• It will be converted into equity
  and equity capital of the company will be raised to that extent.

• The Union Cabinet, presided by
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on 25 May 2016 granted ex-post facto approval to
  the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Ministry of Tourism,
  Government of India and the Ministry of Tourism, Government of Maldives.
• The MoU was signed to strengthen
  cooperation in the field of tourism.
• The MoU with Maldives will be
  instrumental in increasing arrival from this important source market. In recent
  years, Maldives has also emerged as an important tourism generating market for
  India.

• To expand bilateral cooperation
  in the tourism sector
• To exchange information and data
  related to tourism
• To encourage cooperation between
  tourism stakeholders, including hotels and tour operators
• To establish exchange programme
  for cooperation in Human Resources Development

• Union Road Transport and Highways
  Minister Nitin Gadkari on 25 May 2016 launched 20 Nirbhaya buses of Rajasthan
  State Transport Corporation (RSTC). These buses are fitted with multiple safety
  measures to better protect women passengers.
• The 20 buses launched as a pilot
  project under the NIRBHAYA scheme include 10 luxury and 10 ordinary roadways
  buses.

• Nirbhaya bus security measures
  include Vehicle Tracking System (VTS), CCTV and panic buttons on every seat.
• The VTS and the panic buttons
  will enable the police to know the exact location of the bus and provide prompt
  assistance.
• Once the emergency signal is
  triggered, the CCTV cameras will start displaying live footage of the bus at
  the central control room.

• Intel India on Thursday announced
  three innovative initiatives to strengthen its support for Prime Minister
  Narendra Modi’s Digital India programme.
• It launched three projects
  designed to accelerate digital literacy at the grassroots level by reaching out
  to the population in non-urban India, upskill citizens in tier two cities and
  beyond and encourage innovation from the local level.
• Building on the momentum of its
  “Ek Kadam Unnati Ki Aur” initiative to accelerate access to
  technology in non-urban India, Intel India e-launched its latest “Unnati
  Kendra at Common Service Centre” (UK at CSC) in Karnal, the first in
  Haryana.
• The ‘UK at CSC’ will serve as the
  common access digital learning centres for people of the state.
• Intel India is working with the
  government to open a network of up to 100 ‘UK at CSC’ facilities across 10
  states this year, with 10 such facilities already set up in the state of Telangana.
• Intel India also announced the
  “Digital Unnati” website that is being set up in collaboration with
  the CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd.
• It will enable Village Level
  Entrepreneurs (VLEs) to learn how to assemble a PC online and upskill their technology
  know-how.

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• The Union Human Resource
  Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Zubin Irani on 25 May 2016 launched the
  multilingual knowledge portal www.bharatvani.in at Lucknow. With its launch, Bharatavani
  became the largest online repository of dictionaries in India.
• The portal has been launched in
  22 scheduled languages, which eventually will be extended to 100 more
  languages. It will help the government to showcase the Indian culture and heritage
  to the world.
• This project is in line with the
  HRD Ministry’s efforts to not only ensure universalization of education but
  also towards creation of a knowledge society in the digital age.

• Aim: It aims at brining in people
  of India under one portal and establishes itself as a single point online
  window to knowledge in and about Indian Languages, dictionaries, language IT
  tools and textbooks.
• Goal: Its goal is to bridge the
  Digital and language divide, with the idea to publish as well as involve people
  in the Open Knowledge movement.
• One Point language resource: It
  is the first knowledge portal of its kind in India which focuses on becoming a
  single point source for multiple language learning, content and technology.
• Window to language diversity: It
  will help the government to protect, preserve and include all Indian languages
  through technological development without discrimination.

• Paa Thyapustaka Kosha: Textbooks
  by various authorities
• Jnana Kosha: Encyclopedic
  Knowledge base in all languages
• Shabda Kosh: Dictionaries,
  Glossaries, Terminologies
• Bhasha Kosha: Language learning
  books
• Suchanaa Praudyogikii Kosha: It
  tools (right now linked to TDIL)
• Bahumaadhyama Kosha: Multimedia
  content

• The finding of the first of its
  kind survey conducted at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai
  were released by the Research Team of L.N.Welingkar Institute of Management (WE
  School) in May 2016 at Mumbai Customs House.
• The Central Board of Excise and
  Customs (CBEC) engaged a WE School to conduct a survey of Passenger
  Satisfaction levels of customs clearance process at the Mumbai International
  Airport.
• The scope of the Survey was to
  assess Passenger Satisfaction levels with the Customs Clearance Process,
  focusing on three aspects. Those three aspects were Information, Behaviour and
  Process.
• A research team comprising of
  faculty members and research associates of WE School conducted the survey over
  a week on 24×7 basis in May 2016.

• Overall Satisfaction level at
  Mumbai Airport
• The passengers were asked to rate
  their experience of Mumbai Customs vis-a- vis other international Airports
  across the world.
• 69% rated their experience with
  Mumbai airport customs as better as or somewhat better than other international
  airports.
• 15% rated on par.
• About 16% felt that it was worse
  .
• 77% of the passengers stated that
  they did not face any difficulty or harassment.
• The study revealed that
  passengers are sensitive to the time they spend on the entire Customs Clearance
  Process.
• In the case of Green Channel
  passengers, threshold time is up to 15 minutes while in the case of Red Channel
  Passengers, threshold time appeared to creep in the 15 to 29 minutes time
  interval.

• The United Nations Environment
  Programme (UNEP) on 24 May 2016 released the report titled Actions on Air
  Quality. The report was released during the second United Nations Environment
  Assembly (UNEA-2).
• As per the report, with the
  decline of the global air quality, action in some air quality areas points to
  political will to tackle this global public health emergency although current
  efforts still fall short.

• According to the World Health
  Organization (WHO), global urban air pollution levels increased by 8 percent
  between 2008 and 2013.
• More than 80 percent of people
  living in urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality
  levels that exceed WHO limits, threatening lives, productivity and economies.
• The report found improvements in
  some areas such as access to cleaner cooking fuels and stoves, renewables, fuel
  sulphur content and public transport – pointing to a growing momentum for change.

• As Narendra Modi completes two
  years as Prime Minister, he remains the second most-liked world leader on
  Facebook, the social media giant said Thursday.
• The list of most-liked world leaders
  on Facebook released by the social network shows that Modi is second only to US
  President Barack Obama and is followed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip
  Erdogan.
• Modi’s Facebook post on May 15
  with his mother at his official residence at Delhi’s Race Course Road remains
  on top with 1.6 million likes, 1.2 lakh shares and 34,000 comments.
• The Prime Minister’s colleagues
  are also not far behind in making their presence felt in the virtual world.
• Out of a total of 50 cabinet
  ministers along with ministers with independent charge, 47 of them have
  verified Facebook presence.
• During the last one year, the top
  performing ministers on Facebook include Home Minister Rajnath Singh, HRD
  minister Smriti Zubin Irani, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Food processing
  minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

• Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance
  Industries leads the pack of 56 Indian firms in Forbes’s annual list of the
  world’s 2,000 largest and mostpowerful public companies, with the US leading
  the list with 586 companies.
• The 2016 Forbes ‘Global 2000’, a
  snapshot of the world’s largest companies, shows the dominance of US and China
  in the current global business landscape.
• US and China-based companies
  dominate the top 10, with only Japan’s Toyota Motor at the 10th tenth
  preventing a clean sweep for the two nations.
• India’s tally of 56 of the
  world’s biggest companies remains the same as last year and Reliance Industries
  maintains its top position of leading the largest public companies in India.
• Reliance improved its ranking
  this year to 121 from 142 last year, with a market value of $50.6 billion and
  assets worth $91.5 billion.
• Reliance is followed by State
  Bank of India which is ranked 149 and has a 23.3 billion dollar market value.
• The other Indian companies on the
  list are Oil and Natural Gas ranked (220), ICICI Bank (266), HDFC Bank (275),
  Indian Oil (371), Tata Consultancy Services (385), NTPC (400), Bharti Airtel
  (453), Axis Bank (484), Infosys (590), Bharat Petroleum (650), Wipro (755,Tata
  Steel (1178) and Adani Enterprises (1993).
• Also making to the list are Coal
  India (465), Larsen and Toubro (505), ITC (781), Kotak Mahindra Bank (899),
  Mahindra and Mahindra (901) and HCL Technologies (943).

• Veteran CPI-M leader Pinarayi
  Vijayan was sworn-in as 12th Chief Minister of Kerala on 25 May 2016. Governor
  P Sathasivam administered his oath of office and secrecy along with other 18
  ministers in Thiruvananthapuram.
• He won the 2016 Kerala
  Legislative Assembly election as the CPI(M) candidate for Dharmadom
  constituency.
• Of those who were sworn on the
  occasion are 12 ministers from CPI-M including Pinarayi Vijayan. While 4 ministers
  are from CPI, 3 others are from Congress(S), NCP and JD(S). Eight of those who
  were sworn on the occasion became ministers for the first time.

• Startup Village Chairman Sanjay
  Vijayakumar, who played a key role in setting up India’s first technology
  business incubator on the PPP model in Kerala, has been appointed Advisor to
  the Rajasthan government’s Startup Council, to create a startup ecosystem in
  the state.
• The Startup Council, headed by
  the Rajasthan Chief Minister, comprises a Member Secretary, nine members and 11
  experts from the industry.
• The 32-year-old Vijayakumar has
  been appointed in his capacity as an eminent expert of the Startup Council,
  whose mandate is to play “an advisory role and act as a think tank for
  strengthening the startup ecosystem” in the state.

• Technology Academy Finland (TAF)
  on 24 May 2016 declared American innovator Frances Arnold as winner of the 2016
  Millennium Technology Prize.
• The 1 million euro prize is
  awarded biennially and Arnold is the first female winner in its 12-year
  history.
• Biochemical engineer Arnold
  received the 2016 Millennium Technology Prize in recognition of her discoveries
  that launched the field of directed evolution, which mimics natural evolution
  to create new and better proteins in the laboratory.