MoU Agreement Between India and Germany

India’s 1st dedicated satellite for astronomy research Astrosat successfully launched

India’s first dedicated satellite for astronomy research Astrosat has been successfully launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikotta. It was launched along with 6 foreign satellites by the ISRO’s work horse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C30 (PSLV-C30). 

About Astrosat 
Astrosat is India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory and one of the major scientific mission of ISRO after the highly acclaimed Chandrayaan-I and Mangalyaan. 

Functions: 
As a space observatory it has ability to observe celestial bodies like cosmic X-Ray sources and distant stars in different wavelengths simultaneously. It will observe the universe through ultraviolet, optical, low and high energy X-ray components of the electromagnetic spectrum. Payloads: Astrosat space observatory has been mounted with sophisticated scientific payloads having six key instruments with total mass of 750 kg. It includes telescopes, sky monitors, mirrors and special imager. Six key instruments are: UltraViolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT), Soft X-ray imaging Telescope (SXT), LAXPC Instrument, Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI), Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM) and Charged Particle Monitor (CPM). These instruments have been jointly developed by ISRO, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). 

Orbit: Astrosat will be placed at low earth equatorial orbit at altitude of 650 km. Ground Command and Control Centre: It will be located at ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore, Karnataka. Mission life: It has science research mission life of five years and will operate as a space observatory. With the successful launch of this space observatory, India became member of select group of nations after the US, Japan, Russia and Europe having its own space observatory. Significance of PSLV-C30 Launch For the first time, PSLV-C30 took flight mission in extended configuration as it was carrying total payload weight of 1631 kg. The first and third stages of PSLV-C30 launch were powered by solid fuel while the second and fourth stages are powered by liquid fuel. This successful mission also marks the first ever commercial launch of United States (US) satellites from India. Other 6 Satellites: 4 identical LEMUR nano-satellites of Spire Global Inc of US, micro-satellite LAPAN-A2 of Indonesia and nano-satellite NLS-14 (Ev9) of the University of Toronto, Canada. It should be noted that this is third time an Indian rocket has launched seven satellites in a single mission. In 2008, ISRO had launched 10 satellites using PSLV in one go including India’s Cartosate-2A satellite.

RBI draft ECB norms: Firms may get access to sovereign, pension funds

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed to allow domestic firms to borrow from foreign regulated financial entities, pension funds, insurance funds, sovereign wealth funds and other long-term investors as part of a major relaxation in fund raising via external commercial borrowing route. 
• The RBI has also proposed that Indian banks act as ECB lenders subject to norms. The draft ECB norms, however, proposed to lower the all-in cost borrowing by 0.50 per cent to ensure that the funds are borrowed from abroad at a reasonable interest rate. 
• According to the draft guidelines on ECBs released by the RBI, there will only be a small negative list which include stock market operations, real estate activity and purchase of land. They will not be allowed to raise funds via ECBs or rupee-denominated borrowing

Indra Nooyi, Shobhana Bhartia awarded 2015 Global Leadership Award

Hindustan Times Group chairperson Shobhana Bharatia and PepsiCo Chairman Indra Nooyi have been awarded 2015 Global Leadership Award of the US-India Business Council (USIBC). They were honoured with this award for their roles as top women leaders in the Business world and their commitment to driving a more inclusive global economy. Apart from them, renowned Indian-American artist Natvar Bhavsar was awarded the Artistic Achievement Award. He is well-known for his abstract expressionism and colour-field painting. All of them were presented the awards during the annual gala of the USIBC. US Vice President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State John Kerry were among the dignitaris who had addressed USIBC gala on the occasion. It should be noted that USIBC is the top advocacy group for India and American companies in the US. It aims to deepen trade and strengthen commercial ties between both countries

The Hindu Simplified

The Hindu Simplified (23 Sep 2015)

India approved $ 3 billion defence deal with US for buying two of the worlds most advanced helicopters 1.       Apache Helicopter 2.       Chinook Helicopter

Rajasthan Assembly passes new quota bills providing 5% reservation to Gujjars & other communities under Special Backward Classes & 14% to economic backward classes of unreserved categories

National Health Profile 2015 released by Union Health Minister J.P Nadda. Key Findings: ·         11000 Patients per government doctor ·         In Bihar 1 bed for 8800 people

West Bengal seeks GI Tag for rassagolla

Odisha girl Lalita Prasida Sripada Srisai won Google Science Fair in California as she develop low cost water purifier.

Ajay Jayaram is a Badminton Player reached Korea Open final last week.

 

The Hindu Simplified (22 Sep 2015)

India calls back its ambassador Ranjit Rae back for consultation in the back drop of violence after the adoption of new Constitution by Nepal.

General Electric (GE) CEO Jeff Immelt is ready to get into India’s Nuclear Energy if India accepts the agreement under the Civil Nuclear Liability.

Ima Keithel (Mother’s Market) is an initiative taken by Manipur women in assistance with Manipur Women Gun Survivor Network (MWGSN) and art historian Kapila Vatsyayan. BPL women from Manipur weave the garments traditionally and gets a market platform to sell their products. Famous products are like : Enaphi (a shoulder shawl), phanek (Wrap), leiroom (a hand woven scarf for ceremonial purpose).

Andhra Pradesh tourism initiated “Heli Tourism” a commercial joy ride to have an aerial view of temple city Tirupati

Bombay High Court refuses to grant stay on cattle slaughter ban as petitioner seeking relaxation on slaughter of cow, bull and bullocks on the eve of Muslim festival, sought complete ban of cow, bull and bullock is violation of freedom of religion (Article 25).

Bain Capital, the U.S based private equity firm acquired 10 per cent stake in L & T Finance.

Migrant Crisis: Hungary’s Parliament and its Prime Minister Viktor Orban gave its army and police new powers to keep refugees out of its border.

 

 

Three New Tiger Reserves in India

Government is setting three new tiger reserves as the tiger census in January showed an overall rise in numbers of Tigers. National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) approved for creation of reserves in Ratapani in Madhya Pradesh, Sunabeda in Odisha and Guru Ghasidas in Chhattisgarh.

About National Tiger Conservation Authority

The National Tiger Conservation Authority was established in December 2005 following a recommendation of the Tiger Task Force, constituted by the Prime Minister of India for reorganized management of Project Tiger and the many Tiger Reserves in India.

Snapdeal Acquires FreeCharge

Online marketplace Snapdeal on 8 April 2015 acquired India’s fastest growing mobile transaction platform FreeCharge. With this acquisition, Snapdeal has become India’s largest mobile commerce firm with 40 million users and the largest mobile transactions base for any company. Now Snapdeal can offer wide range of services and products including financial services, mobile recharge and utility payments to its growing user base. 

About FreeCharge 
FreeCharge is a mobile commerce platform where users can recharge any prepaid mobile phone, postpaid mobile, DTH & Data Cards in India. Founded in 2010 by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Since 2011, it had raised over $120 million in financing backed by top tier institutional investors. 

About Snapdeal 
Snapdeal was started in February 2010. It was founded by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, an alumnus of IIT Delhi. Since its formation Snapdeal has grown to become the largest online marketplace in India. At present it offers an assortment of 4 million+ products across diverse categories from over 50,000 sellers, shipping to 4,000 towns and cities in India.

MUDRA bank to provide credit to small entreprenuers

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8 April 2015 launched Micro Units Development Re-finance Agency (MUDRA) Bank in New Delhi. 

MUDRA Bank will act as a regulator for ‘Micro-Finance Institutions’ (MFIs) involved in manufacturing, trading and service activities to promote their growth. 

The Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana will be the main support system for the bank and will be the part of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). 

The MUDRA bank was proposed in Budget 2015-16 by Union Government with an initial corpus of 20,000 crore rupees. Apart from this, 3,000 crore rupees also has been earmarked as credit guarantee corpus. 

The envisaged roles for MUDRA Bank include :

• Formulate policy guidelines for micro-enterprise financing business and registration of MFI entities. Undertake rating and accreditation of MFI entities. 
• Develope standardized set of guidelines in order to govern last-mile lending to micro enterprises. Promote appropriate technology solutions for the last mile. 
• Formulate and operate a credit guarantee schemes in order to provide guarantees to loans and portfolios that are extended to micro enterprises. 
• Support promotional and development activities in the sector and create a good architecture for last-mile credit delivery. 
• MUDRA Bank will provide financing on 3 stages- Shishu, Kishore and Tarun. 

Shishu is first stage in which loan cover upto Rs 50,000 will be given to a business entity at start of business. Kishore is second stage in which loan cover ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh will be given. Tarun is the third stage in which loan cover up to Rs. 10 lakh will be given.

Submarine “Kalvari” undocked at Mazagon Dock Limited- First submarine by India

“Kalvari”, the first of the Navy’s six Scorpene class stealth submarines built under Project 75, was undocked at Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) here on Monday, paving the way for sea trials.

• Six Scorpenes are being built by MDL in collaboration with French firm DCNS.
• The first Scorpene submarine has been named after its predecessor, an erstwhile Russian “Foxtrot” class submarine, Kalvari. 
• It was the first submarine operated by India.

The Scorpene submarines would pack a potent punch. They would be equipped with anti-ship missiles and long range guided torpedoes along with modern sensor suite.

Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis win Miami Open title

Sania Mirza achieved yet another career milestone by capturing her 25th WTA doubles title as the Indian ace continued her dream start with Martina Hingis to win the Miami Open trophy by defeating second seeded Russian team of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina

Amaravathi - New Capital of Andhra Pradesh

The Andhra Pradesh Government approved Amaravathi town, the ancient seat of power of Satavahana rulers, as its new capital coming up in the Vijayawada-Guntur region, which is also known for its historical and spiritual significance.

It is the city of Lord Indra, the king of the gods, the chief minister said referring to mythology. Amaravathi, located on the banks of river Krishna, derives its name from Lord Amareswara temple in the village and it is known as ‘Dakshina Kashi’ (Kashi of the south), he said, adding it was the capital of Satvahana rulers for 400 years.

Ali Neemuchwala as the Group President and Chief Operating Officer of WIPRO

Wipro, India’s third-largest software services firm has appointed Abid Ali Neemuchwala as the Group President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). This appointment will be effective from 1 April 2015.

Neemuchwala in his new role will head Wipro’s service lines of global infrastructure services, business application services, business process services and advanced technology solutions.

He will also head company’s advisor relationships, strategic engagements as well as the marketing function and business operations in various geographies including continental Europe, Latin America and Africa.

Prior to this appointment, Ali Neemuchwala was heading BPO arm of India’s largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

About Abid Ali Neemuchwala

• He holds an Electronics & Communication (E&TC) engineering degree from NIT, Raipur and Master’s degree in Industrial Management from IIT, Mumbai.
• Neemuchwala has rich experience of 23 years in all facets of IT & BPS businesses and good track record of building and scaling businesses.

Kidambi Srikanth successfully won Swiss Grand Prix Gold Championship

India’s young shuttler Kidambi Srikanth has successfully won the prestigious Swiss Grand Prix Gold championship title, by defeating Denmark’s Viktor Axelson in a tough finals. Srikanth, the world number 4 player showed his extra ordinary skill to prevail over World number six Axelson, 21-15, 12-21, 21-14 in the nail-biting summit clash of the $120,000 event that lasted for 47 minutes.

Kidambi Srikanth was the first Indian to win a Grand Prix Gold title (Thailand) in June 2013.Injuries slowed down Srikanth’s progress and the brain fever in July, 2014 almost killed him. His mental and physical strength as well as the hard work rewarded him.

Maharashtra bans sale, possession of beef; imposes Rs 10,000 fine

President Pranab Mukherjee signed a bill banning cow slaughter in Maharashtra. Under the new law, anyone selling beef or in possession of it can be jailed for up to five years and fined Rs 10,000.

The memorandum said that the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 1995, passed during the previous Shiv Sena-BJP regime, had been awaiting approval for 19 years.

Defence Salary Package MoU Signed Between Indian Army and State Bank of India

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Indian Army and State Bank of India (SBI) on the Defence Salary Package on 23 Feb 2015. The signing in ceremony was chaired by the Adjutant General, Lt Gen Rakesh Sharma and was attended by top dignitaries of SBI Bank, headed by Dr Vaidyan MG, Dy MD (Retail Strategy).

           

 The first MoU between SBI and the Indian Army was signed in 2011 and was valid for a period of three years. The revised MoU is tailor-made to suit the requirements of serving soldiers, pensioners and families. A number of additional facilities have been incorporated in the revised MoU after concerted efforts spanning over a year.

           

            The basic features of the MoU include a number of free / concessional services like free drafts, free cheque books, free funds transfers to any bank in India through RTGS / NEFT, free ATM cards etc. The provision also includes the Nepal Express Remittance Scheme which enables instant fund transfers to Nepal for the benefit of the Nepali Domicile Gorkha Soldiers serving in the Indian Army.

Additional improved features are linking of the Personal Accident Insurance (PAI) to the Savings account instead of the debit card, enhancement of the PAI amounts, enhancement of the exemption percentage of margin money for house and car loans and waiving off of the processing charges on the loans. The revised MoU will benefit almost 19.5 lakh pensioners and 10 lakh serving personnel who hold Pay or Pension accounts with SBI and also provide them an opportunity to access modern banking facilities.

National Science Day on 28 Feb : Science for Nation Building

Every year February 28 is celebrated as the National Science Day i.e. Rashtriya Vigyan Diwas. In 2015, the theme of the day is “Science for Nation Building” . This year’s theme has been chosen for the purpose of raising public appreciation on scientific issues for the development of nation. 

Why National Science Day is celebrated?

• This day marks the epoch-making discovery of Raman Effect by Indian physicist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (CV Raman) on February 28, 1928.
• In 1930, for this discovery he was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• In 1986, National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) demanded the Union Government to assign February 28 every year as the ‘National Science Day’ for India.
• In 2000, the first National Science Day was celebrated on February 28, 2000.
• In 2013, the American Chemical Society designated the ‘Raman Effect’ as an International Historic Chemical Landmark.

1. Theme for the National Science Day 2014 – “Fostering Scientific Temper and Energy conservation”
2. Theme for the National Science Day 2013 – “Genetically Modified Crops and Food Security”.

.

Apple Inc fined $553 million for patent infringement

US Tech giant Apple Inc has been fined $553 million for three patent infringements owned by patent licensing firm Smartflash LLC. This verdict was given by federal Jury in US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The Jury in its verdict found out that Apple Inc’s iTunes software has infringed three
patents owned by Smartflash LLC. The federal jury in its verdict also held that Apple had not only used Smartflash’s patents without permission, but also used them willfully.
 

Background
In May 2013, Smartflash LLC had sued Apple Inc, alleging that iTunes software has violated its 3 patents related to accessing and storing downloaded songs, videos and games. In this regard, Smartflash LLC had asked $852 million in damages from Apple.

Tata Power signs MoU with Russia’s SEUK to tap opportunities in the energy sector

India’s second largest private power producer Tata Power has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Russia’s largest coal producer Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK).
As part of this initial agreement, both the companies will cooperate with each other to identify and target opportunities in the energy sector.Both parties will tap the opportunities in the energy sector in Russia and other geographies to develop common mutual interest.

At present, Tata Power is generating about 8,621 MW of power of which 7,407 MW is from thermal power generation.
By signing this agreement, Tata Power is endeavoring to be a significant player in the international energy market as SUEK is reliable and world class player in the mining business.
Presently SUEK has its presence in more than 30 countries as a coal supplier.

87 Academy Awards Winners : Oscar Awards

The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

The Academy Awards (commonly referred as Oscars) were presented in twenty four categories. They are

• Best Picture -  Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
• Best Actor -  Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything).
• Best Actress - Julianne Moore (Still Alice).
• Best Supporting Actor - J. K. Simmons (Whiplash).
• Best Supporting Actress - Patricia Arquette (Boyhood).
• Best Director - Alejandro G. Iñárritu for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
• Best Original Screenplay - Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
• Best Adapted Screenplay - The Imitation Game.
• Best Original Song - Glory (Selma).
• Best Original Score - The Grand Budapest Hotel.
• Best Production Design - The Grand Budapest Hotel.
• Best Editing - Whiplash.
• Best Cinematography - Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
• Best Sound Editing - American Sniper.
• Best Sound Mixing - Whiplash.
• Best Foreign Language Film - Ida (Poland).
• Best Documentary Feature - CitizenFour.
• Best Documentary Short Subject - Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1.
• Best Live Action Short Film - The Phone Call.
• Best Visual Effects - Interstellar.
• Best Animated Feature Film - Big Hero 6.
• Best Animated Short Film - Feast.
• Best Makeup and Hairstyling - The Grand Budapest Hotel.
• Best Costume Design - The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Most awards: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (Both received 4 awards).

Most nominations in 87th Academy Awards- Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (both 9 nominations)

3rd Edition of Tortoise Festival organised in Assam

3rd Tortoise Festival was organised on the banks of Hajong Lake in Dima Hasao district of Assam by Dima Hasao Environment and Forest Department.

This festival aims to create awareness among the villagers surrounding villages of Hajong Lake about the safety of the endangered tortoise species available in the area.

Key facts

• Hajong Lake is popularly known as the tortoise lake, is a natural habitat of the few unique tortoise i.e. hill terrapins.
• It is situated 80 kilometres north of Haflong in the remote Dima Hasao district.
• Hajong Lake is the only natural tortoise habitat in Assam, where some endangered species of tide-water tortoise of north-east India are still living.
• It is facing a hostile condition due to ever-growing human intervention in their habitats and at present, there are around 400 to 500 tortoises dwelling in this Lake.