Current Affairs Update – 28th July, 2016

• India’s largest insurer Life
  Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has signed an agreement with private sector
  lender Axis Bank as its bancassurance partner wherein the bank will distribute
  LIC’s products to its customers.
• In the preliminary phase, the
  bank will distribute LIC’s life insurance products across its branches in West
  Bengal, Bangalore and Haryana – Panchkula. Additionally, the bank will also
  provide post sales services such as premium collection and renewal of policies.
• In a statement, LIC said that
  this is one of the largest bancassurance partnerships after the recent
  Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) regulations
  issued on open architecture framework for banks.  As on June 30, 2016, Axis Bank had a network
  of 3,006 domestic branches and extension counters situated in 1,882 centres.

• The Union Cabinet on 27 July 2016
  cleared changes to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitutional Amendment
  Bill.
• The changes include dropping 1
  percent manufacturing tax and providing guarantee to compensate states for any
  revenue loss in the first five years of rollout of the proposed indirect tax
  regime.
• It decided that any dispute
  between states and the Centre will be adjudicated by the GST Council, which
  will have representation from both the Centre and states.
• The existing bill provides that
  the centre will give 100 percent compensation to states for first three years,
  75 per cent and 50 per cent for the next two years.

• Lok Sabha on 27 July 2016 passed
  the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Bill, 2015. The Bill seeks to
  amend the Benami Transactions Act, 1988.
• The bill prohibits benami
  transactions and provides for confiscating benami properties.

• Amend the definition of benami
  transactions
• Establish adjudicating
  authorities and an Appellate Tribunal to deal with benami transactions
• Specify the penalty for entering
  into benami transactions.

• It expands the definition of
  benami transaction by including following
• Transaction is made in a
  fictitious name
• Owner is not aware of and denies
  knowledge of the ownership of the property
• Person providing the
  consideration for the property is not traceable
• Earlier, it defined benami
  transaction as a transaction where a property is held by or transferred to a
  person, but has been provided for or paid by another person.

• As per the report published by US
  Geological Survey on 19 July 2016, Joint expedition titled Indian National Gas
  Hydrate Program Expedition 02 by India and the United States (US) have resulted
  in the discovery of large, highly enriched accumulations of natural gas hydrate
  (an icy form of the fuel) in Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean.
• The international team of
  scientists was led by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited of India in
  cooperation with the US Geological Survey (USGS), the Japanese Drilling
  Company, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
• This is the first discovery of
  its kind in the Indian Ocean that has the potential to be producible.

• The Indian National Gas Hydrate
  Program Expedition 02 is the second joint exploration for gas hydrate potential
  in the Indian Ocean.
• It focused on the exploration and
  discovery of highly concentrated gas hydrate occurrences in sand reservoirs.

• The Union Cabinet on 27 July 2016
  approved the Policy for awarding waterfront and associated land to port
  dependent industries in major ports along with its operationalization.
• The Policy will result in
  uniformity and transparency in the procedure for awarding captive facilities.
  It will enable optimal utilization of capacities in major ports and increase
  revenue to the Major Port Authority.

• The ambit of the Policy includes
  creation of new assets as well as utilization of currently unutilised existing
  assets such as vacant berths. The Policy will be applicable to all the Major
  Ports.
• Under the Policy, concession will
  be granted to Port Dependent Industries (PDI) for setting up dedicated
  facilities in Major Ports for import and export of cargo for maximum 30 years.
• Extension of concession period on
  conditions including under utilization of asset as per the Concession Agreement
  may be allowed.
• After a maximum of 30 years of
  operation, the waterfront land in a Major Port will be allotted for
  construction of berths, offshore anchorages, transhipment jetties, single point
  moorings etc.

• India on 27 July 2016 signed a one-billion
  dollar deal with the US defence and aerospace major Boeing for procuring four
  long-range maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft,
  Poseidon-8I. First of the four new P-8I aircraft will be delivered in 50
  months.
• Incidentally, India is P-8I’s
  first international customer and was also Boeing’s first military sale to
  India.
• The contract was inked during the
  on-going visit of the US under secretary for defence on Acquisition Frank
  Kendall.
• The contract is a follow-on order
  to eight P-81 planes worth 2.1 billion dollars deal inked in 2009, already
  bought by India in a direct deal with the firm. These aircrafts were inducted
  by the Navy between May 2013 and October 2015.

• The Union Cabinet on 27 July 2016
  approved the establishment of a All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS)
  at Bhatinda in Punjab under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana
  (PMSSY).
• It will provide super specialty
  health care to the population while creating a large pool of doctors and other
  health workers in this region that can be available for primary and secondary
  level institutions/facilities being created under National Health Mission
  (NHM).

• The cost of the project for
  establishment of the AIIMS in Bhatinda shall be 925 crore rupees.
• This cost estimate does not
  include recurring costs (wages & salaries and operation & maintenance
  expenses).
• The recurring expenditure will be
  met by the respective AIIMS from their annual budgets through Grant-in-Aid to
  them from Plan Budget Head of PMSSY of Union Ministry of Health and Family
  Welfare.

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• The International Cricket Council
  (ICC) on 27 July 2016 announced that Muttiah Muralitharan, Karen Rolton, Arthur
  Morris and George Lohmann will be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
• With the announcement,
  off-spinner Muralitharan becomes the first Sri Lankan player to be inducted
  into the Hall of Fame.
• The four cricketers were voted by
  the ICC Cricket Hall of Famers as well as members of the media. They will be
  presented with commemorative caps honouring their contribution to the game to
  mark their induction.

• The International Olympic
  Committee (IOC) on 27 July 2016 announced that it will launch the Olympic
  Channel. The channel will be launched on 21 August 2016, at the closing
  ceremony of the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
• The channels original programming
  will include short-form and long-form content, focusing on elite athletes,
  their quest for success and sport around the world.

• The European Union’s executive on
  27 July 2016 appointed Michel Barnier, former French Financial Services
  Commissioner, as its Chief Negotiator for the United Kingdom’s exit from the
  bloc.
• Barnier will be a prominent
  figure in the negotiations over Britain’s exit from the union.
• In June 2016, Didier Seeuws, a
  Belgian diplomat, was appointed as head of a Brexit task force by the European
  Council.

• C.K. Mishra, a 1983 batch IAS
  officer of the Bihar cadre, has been appointed the new Health Secretary, an
  official statement said.
• Mishra will replace B.P. Sharma,
  a 1981 batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, who has been appointed secretary,
  Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
• N.S. Kang, a 1983 batch IAS
  officer of the Punjab cadre, associated with the National AIDS Control
  Organisation (NACO) as additional secretary, has been made Secretary and
  Director General of the organisation after upgradation of his post.

• World Hepatitis Day 2016 was
  observed across the world on 28 July 2016 with the theme Elimination.
• The day acts as a significant
  global platform for raising awareness about hepatitis and influence real change
  in disease prevention, testing and treatment.
• The theme for the 2016 focuses on
  elimination of hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. The theme can be
  easily adapted for local use to achieve elimination, greater awareness,
  increased diagnosis and key interventions including universal vaccination,
  blood and injection safety etc.

• Distinguished agricultural
  scientist Neelamraju Ganga Prasada (NGP) Rao, fondly referred to as the Father
  of Hybrid Sorghum, passed away on 27 July 2016 in Hyderabad following a brief
  illness. He was 89.
• NGP Rao is well-known for basic
  and applied research in breeding and agronomy of several dryland crops.