Current affairs- July 29, 2016
Indian Railways Cleaniless Survey-2016
Indian Railways Cleaniless Survey-2016 Launched
under the “Swachh Rail, Swachh Abhiyan “ with the objective of measuring
passenger’s satisfaction with cleanliness at station premises.
- Beas
in Punjab is billed the cleanest railway station, Madhubani in Bihar is at
the bottom of the grid.
Surplus river basins face
drop in rainfall: IIT study
A study carried out by a
team of researchers from IIT Madras and IIT Bombay has found a decrease in
spatial variability of mean monsoon rainfall over major river basins in India.
While there is a
statistically significant decrease in the monsoon rainfall over major water
surplus river basins, there is no statistically significant increase in monsoon
rainfall over major water deficit river basins.
Patna
HC quashes election of BJP MP from Sasaram
The Patna High Court terminated
membership of BJP MP from Sasaram in Bihar Chhedi Paswan for not disclosing
criminal charges pending against him while filing his nomination papers to
contest the last Parliamentary poll in 2014.
Rajya Sabha passed Compensatory
and Afforestation Fund (CAF) Bill, 2016
The Rajya Sabha unanimously passed the contentious Compensatoryand Afforestation Fund (CAF) Bill, 2016 that allows States to access nearly Rs.
42,000 crore and channel into afforestation projects.
- The Bill vesting greater powers in the forest bureaucracy than on resident tribals
Retail
investors can trade Govt. bonds on NDS starting Aug. 16
Reserve Bank of India has
announced Retail investors can access the government securities
(G-sec) market, being used currently by the large institutional players, in a
seamless manner from August 16.
Centre
plans to ease pains of e-pharmacy business
The Centre will consider
next week a proposal for drawing up separate guidelines for the sale of
medicines online to help establish a legal framework for e-pharmacy businesses.
With the advent of
e-pharmacy, there is a need to amend the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, as it
does not differentiate between offline and online pharmacies.
ADB
raises Rs 500 cr in rupee-linked bonds
Multilateral funding agency
Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised Rs 5 billion, or around Rs 500 crore,
by issuing five-year offshore Indian rupee-linked bonds. The bonds, which
are denominated in Indian rupees but settled in US dollars, carry a coupon of
6.45 per cent and will mature on 8 August 2021.
Oracle to buy NetSuite in $9.3 billion deal
Business software maker Oracle announced, it would buy NetSuite for about $9.3 billion in cash, a deal designed to help Oracle gain market share in the fast-growing cloud computing business.
- Oracle and NetSuite both offer software applications that help companies automate back end and administrative operations from technology to human resources.
- Oracle's cloud business, which stores enterprise software and data on remote servers, lets the company sell to clients who lack the budget for on-site hardware and technology staff.
- NetSuite, founded in 1998, pioneered cloud computing by creating the first company dedicated to providing business applications over the internet.
Mahasweta Devi passed away:
Eminent litterateur and social
activist
Mahasweta Devi had received
several awards.
The list includes:
- Padma Shri (1986)
- Sahitya Akademi Award for the novel 'Aranyer Adhikar' in 1979
- Jnanpith in 1995 (India's highest literary award),
- Ramon Magsaysay award in 1996 (considered the Asian Nobel),
- Padma Vibhushan (2006)
NDDB
chief Nanda Kumar resigned:
T. Nanda Kumar, Chairman of
Gujarat-based National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), has resigned.
- The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has accepted the resignation of Kumar with effect from August 1, 2016
- Mr. Kumar, a former IAS officer, has been working as NDDB chief since March 3, 2014. He is the third chairman of the board based in Anand, Gujarat, after V. Kurien and Amrita Patel.
