Current Affairs Update – 6-7th March, 2015

• Flipkart on 6 March 2015 acquired mobile ad network
  AdiQuity. The acquisition is aimed at increasing advertising muscle of
  Flipkart.
• The deal amount was not disclosed by both the companies. The
  deal marked the online retailer’s first acquisition in 2015 so far.
• AdiQuity has a history of mobile innovations and extremely
  valuable experience in the ad space. The company was started in 2006 as a
  search engine. It has raised 15 million US dollar so far from Sequoia Capital
  and Sandstone Capital. The company profile includes video ads, geography-based
  targeting and interactive ads.

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been named among the
  30 most influential people on the internet by Time magazine. The list also features
  President Barack Obama.
• The list, which was analyzed on the basis of social media
  followings, site traffic and overall ability to drive news, also includes
  British author J.K. Rowling of the Harry Potter series fame and singers Taylor
  Swift and Beyonce.
• Time said Prime Minister Modi roughly has 38 million
  followers on social networking sites.

• The Kathmandu-Varanasi-Kathmandu bus service was on 5 March
  2015 flagged off jointly by India and Nepal. Nepal Minister for Physical
  Infrastructure and Transport Bimalendra Nidhi and Ambassador of India to Nepal Ranjit
  Rae flagged off the bus service.
• The bus service was launched under the ambit of Motor
  Vehicle Agreement signed between India and Nepal during the 18th SAARC Summit.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 5 March 2015 inaugurated two
  units of 600 Mega Watt (MW) each of Shree Singaji Thermal Power Project at
  Dongliya village in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh.
• The first phase of Shree Singaji Thermal Power Project with
  1200 MW capacity has been developed by Madhya Pradesh Power Generation Company
  Limited (MPPGCL) at an expense of 7820 crore rupees
• With the commissioning of two plants, the total thermal
  power generation capacity of the State increased to 4500 MW.

• India and Spain on 5 March 2015 signed an agreement on
  Mutual Protection of Classified Information to provide the framework for
  enhanced bilateral cooperation in areas of defence research, development and
  technology cooperation.
• The agreement was signed by the Defence Minister Manohar
  Parrikar and Defence Minister of Spain Pedro Morenes Eulate. It was signed
  during the official visit of Defence Minister of Pedro Moremes to India.

• Quick service restaurant chain Subway on 6 March 2015 opened
  an all-women operated outlet at Andheri, Mumbai to mark the International
  Women’s day on 8 March.
• With the new outlet opening in suburban Andheri, the
  Connecticut-based company’s store count has now reached 500 in India.
• Subway entered India in 2001. It operates in 70 cities
  across the country and has plans to take its total number of stores to 1000 by
  2018. It is targeting tier II, tier III cities to fuel its growth plans.

• National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and Council
  for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) on 5 March 2015 signed a Memorandum
  of Agreement (MoA) to commercialise ayurvedic medicines and technologies
  developed at CCRAS.
• The MoA was signed by Abhimanyu Kumar, Director General of
  CCRAS and H Purushotham, Chairman & Managing Director of NRDC. The MoA
  provides Intellectual Property Rights services to CCRAS in India and abroad.

• NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on 6 March 2015 completed its Orbit
  around Dwarf Planet Ceres. By doing so, it became the first spacecraft to orbit
  around a dwarf planet.
• The spacecraft was approximately 38000 miles (61000
  kilometers) away from planet Ceres when it was captured by the dwarf planet’s
  gravity.

• Sri Lankan Government on 5 March 2015 temporarily suspended
  construction work of China’s port city project in Colombo with immediate
  effect.
• The decision was taken in Cabinet meeting chaired by Sri
  Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe based upon the Interim Report
  submitted by a cabinet sub-committee. The committee was appointed by the Sri
  Lankan Government to review the project.

• Sunil Sabharwal, an independent Indian-American investor,
  was re-nominated as an Alternate Executive Director at the International
  Monetary Fund (IMF) by the United States (US) on 4 March 2015. He was
  re-nominated for the post by US President Barack Obama.
• For the first time, he was nominated as an Alternate
  Executive Director at IMF in April 2014.

• The green baize game of snooker, played with multi-coloured
  balls, has been short-listed among three sports to be included in the 2020
  Olympic Games in Tokyo, according to Captain P V K Mohan, president of the
  International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF).
• “For the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, snooker is being
  considered seriously. The Games organisers had approached the World
  Professional Billiards and Snooker Association to send in an application to be
  included in the programme and it has been done. Snooker and two other sports
  have been short-listed,” said Mohan today at the media conference for the
  2nd Indian Open Snooker, scheduled here from March 10.
• The Japan Olympic Association and WCBS (World Confederation
  of Billiards Sports) are pursuing it.

• After the Lok Sabha debacle when Aam Aadmi Party saw a
  series of desertions and senior leaders like Yogendra Yadav questioning the
  “supremo style” of functioning within the party, Arvind Kejriwal
  broke down in the National Executive meeting and had even offered to quit.
• This was revealed by AAP leader Ashutosh, convenor of AAP’s
  Delhi unit and a confidante of Kejriwal in his book The Crown Prince, The
  Gladiator and The Hope.
• The National Executive was held from June 6-8 last year at
  Prashant Bhushan’s residence in Jangpura to discuss party’s debacle in the Lok
  Sabha. But a few weeks after the party’s drubbing, Kejriwal was sent to jail
  for refusing to furnish a bond in a defamation case by Union Minister Nitin
  Gadkari.

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