Current Affairs Update – 7th July, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 7th July, 2015. These are Important for the upcoming SBI PO Mains and RBI Assistant 2015.

• The State-run IDBI Bank on
  Tuesday said it has signed an agreement with Mudra Bank for refinancing of loans
  given to small enterprises.
• “As per the agreement, the Bank
  will offer credit facilities up to Rs 10 lakh to micro enterprises, at a
  competitive interest rate under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) and Mudra
  will be providing refinance assistance to the bank for eligible sanctioned loan
  cases,” IDBI Bank said in a release.
• The refinance scheme will be
  implemented through all the branches of the lender.
• The agreement was signed on July
  1 by IDBI Bank Executive Director S K V Srinivasan and Mudra Bank CEO Jiji
  Mammen.
• Last week, Bank of Maharashtra
  had also signed an agreement with Mudra Bank for refinancing of loans given to
  new entrepreneurs and small businesses.

• The UK-based Entrepreneurial
  Spark and India’s Viridian Ventures on Tuesday announced a joint venture called
  Viridian ESpark Accelerator to create programmes for entrepreneurship
  development, for which the Viridian Venture-led consortium and its partners
  plan to invest about $300 million (Rs 1,950 crore) in a phased manner.
• Announcing this here, Murali
  Hariharan, Global Head (Venture Strategy), Viridian Group, said the accelerator
  had already given awards to 15 start-ups selected through a business plan
  contest launched during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2015. Of the over 140
  entries received from across India, 23 applicants were also shortlisted to be a
  part of the Accelerator Programme, to be launched in Ahmedabad in August.
  Selected candidates would be considered for seed funding of around Rs. 1 crore
  from Viridian Ventures.
• Similar accelerator programmes
  would be launched in Noida and Delhi-NCR by the year-end. In the next three
  years, these programmes would be expanded to Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai,
  Hyderabad, Kochi, Chennai, Chandigarh and Kolkata.

• India and Uzbekistan on 6 July
  2015 released a Joint Statement (JS) to intensify security cooperation and
  exchanges. The JS was released during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official
  visit to Uzbekistan from 6 July to 7 July 2015. He visited Uzbekistan on the
  invitation of the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov.
• PM Modi is on an eight-day visit
  to five Central Asian states, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan
  and Turkmenistan from 6 July to 13 July 2015. During the journey, he will also
  visit Russia to attend BRICS summit and SCO summit at Ufa on 9 July and 10 July
  2015.

• The two sides agreed to maintain
  regular bilateral consultations and political dialogue to promote mutual
  understanding on bilateral as well as regional and international issues.
• The two sides expressed their
  intention to strengthen coordination between the law enforcement agencies and
  special services of the two countries under the framework of the
  Uzbekistan-India Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism.
• They also agreed to expand
  cooperation in the fields of defence and cyber-security.
• The two sides agreed to take
  joint measures to expand and diversify the bilateral trade through facilitating
  participation in exhibitions, trade fairs, business forums and other joint
  business activities in Uzbekistan and India.
• They called for partnership in
  creating favorable conditions for investment by Indian companies in Uzbekistan,
  including in the framework of the Special Economic Zones “Navoi”,
  “Angren” and “Jizzakh”.
• They agreed to further develop
  mutually beneficial cooperation in transport & communication and agreed to
  explore various options to enhance surface connectivity between them.
• They agreed on the proposal to
  set up telemedicine links connecting medical institutions in Uzbekistan and
  India for medical consultations, exchange of experiences and teleconferences.
• A new Programme of Cultural
  Cooperation for the period 2015-2017 was inked and the two sides called for its
  full and timely implementation to expand cultural exchanges.
• The two sides agreed to implement
  practical measures under the framework of the bilateral Agreement on
  cooperation in tourism was signed during the visit.
• Both the sides called for
  comprehensive reforms of the UN structures, first of all, its Security Council,
  including expansion in both categories of membership. Uzbekistan reaffirmed its
  support to India’s candidature for permanent membership of the UN Security
  Council.
• They agreed to further strengthen
  mutual cooperation under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
  (SCO).

• Japanese multinational telecom
  company, SoftBank has expressed its readiness to establish an ambitious 20
  Gigawatt solar power plant in Andhra Pradesh.
• As part of ‘Make in India’
  initiative, SoftBank will take up manufacturing of solar panels in the State.
• Besides offering financial
  assistance for the proposed university on non-conventional energy resources,
  SoftBank also came forward to provide scholarships to engineering students who
  specialise in solar energy.
• This was the outcome during a
  meeting Andhra Pradesh Chief Minster N. Chandrababu Naidu, who is currently
  touring Japan, had with SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son on Tuesday morning.
• Meanwhile, Japanese Minister for
  Trade and Industry Yoichi Miyazawa said that Japanese companies were interested
  in participating in the development of the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh.
  During his interaction with the delegation led by Mr. Naidu, he said that
  Japanese firms would be seeking equity participation with the organisation
  involved in constructing the new capital.

• Delhi has built the highest
  number of community and public toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission, followed by
  Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, while Gujarat topped in the individual household
  category.
• Delhi has completed construction
  of 5,776 community and public toilet seats since the launch of the mission in
  October last year, followed by Chhattisgarh (3,570), Maharashtra (2,520),
  Chandigarh (2,424) and Karnataka (1,680).
• These five states and Union
  Territories accounted for 86 per cent of the total number of public toilets
  constructed so far.
• The government aims to build over
  5 lakh community and public toilet seats under the mission and the Urban
  Development Ministry has sanctioned 82,438 so far.
• On construction of household
  toilets, Gujarat tops the chart with 2,64,331 such facilities, followed by
  Madhya Pradesh (99,151). These two states together account for 94 per cent of
  the total 3.83 lakh individual household toilets built under the scheme so far,
  followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra.
• Applications have been received
  from the states and Union Territories for construction of 30,41,097 individual
  household toilets as against the target of one crore such lavatories by 2019
  and the Urban Development Ministry has sanctioned 13,64,814 toilets.

• Farmers now can have customised
  tips on their phablet on the kind of agricultural inputs they might require for
  their field.
• Based on the specific soil health
  of their small chunks of lands, scientists at the International Crops Research
  Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and Government of Telangana would
  send timely messages to the farmers through the phablet.
• Phablet is a smart device bigger
  than a phone but smaller than a tablet.
• The Hyderabad-headquartered
  ICRISAT launched the Green Phablet, priced at $300 (about Rs. 18,600), for
  farmers in Telangana.
• The institute would maintain
  servers to safe keep the information. And even if a user loses his device, he
  would be able to get back the information in no time.
• ICRISAT Director-General David
  Bergvinson signed a tripartite agreement on Tuesday with the Departments of
  Agriculture and Information Technology to collaborate in transforming agriculture
  using digital technologies.

• President Pranab Mukherjee on 6
  July 2015 inaugurated Nakshatra Vatika at his official Rashtrapati Nilayam
  Gardens in Bolarum, Secunderabad. The vatika (garden) has plants representing
  planets, zodiac signs and stars.
• The layout of ‘Nakshatra Vatika’
  has been developed in various geometrical combinations corresponding to the
  Sree Chakra of Vedic astrology on a 0.91 acre plot.

• Rupak Kumar Dutta, an IPS Officer
  of 1981 Batch (Karnataka Cadre), took over as Special Director in the CBI, New
  Delhi.
• Prior to his appointment as a
  Special Director, he was holding the post of Additional Director in the CBI and
  looking after the Anti Corruption (HQ) Zone, Patna Zone, Hyderabad Zone,
  Chennai Zone, Economic Offences Zone-I, Bank Securities and Frauds Zone and
  Delhi Zone, a release said.

• Former Finance Minster of China
  Jin Liqun was in news as on 6 July 2015 he was nominated by China to be the
  first president of the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
  (AIIB).
• At present, Jin (65) is Secretary
  General of AIIB’s interim secretariat. Earlier, he has held positions at the
  World Bank and was the first Chinese national to serve as a vice president at
  the Japan-controlled Asian Development Bank (ADB).
• During his 5-year-long tenure at
  ADB, Jin headed its programmes for South, Central and West Asia and private
  sector operations.

• In one of the major board
  appointments by the Indian start-ups, taxi hailing services provider Ola has
  roped in former Vodafone global CEO Arun Sarin as an Independent Director.
• Mr. Sarin, in his capacity as an
  Independent Director will contribute in an advisory role to Ola’s overall
  business strategy that will further drive growth and leadership in the market.
• Earlier, last week Chairman
  Emeritus of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata has acquired stake in Ola and the company had
  claimed it as a huge endorsement
• The key appointment of Mr. Sarin
  comes at a time when Indian taxi hailing services provider like Ola and its
  subsidiary Taxi For Sure are facing tough competition from rival Uber.
  Recently, Uber has announced its entry into seven more cities in India. Now
  with presence in around 18 cities, India has become the largest geographical market
  for the Uber after the US.

• Presidents of the United States
  of America and Brazil Barack Obama and Dilma Dilma Rousseff respectively on 30
  June 2015 issued a joint statement on climate change in Washington, the USA.
• The joint statement includes
  individual commitments towards reducing green house gas (GHG) emissions and
  bilateral mechanisms to protect the planet from the adverse effects of climate
  change.
• Takeaways from the joint
  statement on climate change
• The USA and Brazil each intend to
  increase the share of renewables – beyond hydropower – in their respective
  electricity generation mixes to the level of 20 percent by 2030. This means the
  USA and Brazil will need to triple and double, respectively, their share of
  renewable energy in the next 15 years.
• The USA will reduce GHG emissions
  by 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels in 2025.
• Brazil intends to restore and
  reforest 12 million hectares of forests by 2030.
• Both the countries agreed to work
  multilaterally in the Montreal Protocol to consider promptly amendment
  proposals to phase down HFCs.

• A captain’s knock by Mithali Raj
  in the ongoing ODI series against New Zealand women enabled the Indian team to
  register a comfortable eight-wicket victory in the fourth ODI. India levelled
  the five-match series 2-2.
• Mithali’s stylish unbeaten knock
  of 81 was the cornerstone of India successful chase of 221 in only 44.2 overs.
• In the course of her innings,
  Mithali Raj made history. Mithali became the first Indian and second in women’s
  ODI history to complete 5000 runs after England’s Charlotte Edwards.
• The 32-year old from Jodhpur is
  no stranger to record books, too. Very few can forget the memorable
  double-century she scored in England. Her majestic 214 in Taunton back in 1999,
  when she was a mere 19-year-old, was then the world record for the highest
  individual score in Women’s Test cricket.

• Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been
  stripped of the welterweight world title he won after beating Filipino Manny
  Pacquiao in May for failing to comply with rules, the World Boxing Organization
  (WBO) said on Monday.
• Mayweather missed a deadline by
  which he had to pay a $200,000 sanctioning fee from the fight and vacate the
  junior middleweight title he also held, the WBO said in a statement.
• The WBO said it is against rules
  for boxers to hold world titles in multiple weight classes and that Mayweather
  had to indicate, which weight division he would retain.

• Book 37 Bridges and Other Stories
  authored by a noted Pakistani author Aamer Hussein book is a new collection of
  his stories. The book was released on 15 March 2015.
• The author through the book
  highlights the matter of identity with respect to both the Hindu and Muslim.
  Further, the book identifies itself with Hussein’s identity who is a British
  citizen born to a Pakistani father and an Indian mother both of whom later
  settled in Britain.

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