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Current affairs : August 15, 2016


Happy Independence day:
Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous Independence Day. Independence Day, is annually observed on 15 August as a national holiday in India commemorating the nation’s independence from the British Empire on 15 August 1947.
Highlights of the Independence day available here

On the eve of Independence Day, Bihar CM unveils bunch of State Development schemes
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced a bunch of development projects and schemes regarding the “seven resolves” adopted by his government for the next five years.
  • On the 70th Independence Day, Nitish Kumar announced the launch of Student Credit Card scheme from October 2 and this scheme promises Rs. four lakh interest free loan to students for pursuing higher education.
  • Another scheme of providing free Wi-fi facility would be made available in all state universities and colleges from February 2017.
  • A new scheme of launch of startup capital of Rs. 5,000 crore to help young entrepreneurs start their ventures.
  • An innovative scheme of opening centers in all 534 blocks in the state forimparting language training and computer knowledge to youths to prepare them with better employment prospects.

Govt constitutes National Committee on Trade Facilitation headed by Pradeep Kumar Sinha
Centre has constituted a National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF) to develop the pan-India road map for trade facilitation.
  • This move comes after India signed the 76th WTO member to accept the TFA in line with the World Trade Organisation in March this year.
  • The Committee comprises inter – ministerial body and will be headed by Cabinet Secretary of India Pradeep Kumar Sinha on trade facilitation that will facilitate domestic co-ordination and implementation of TFA provisions.
  • The national level committee will focus on pan-India road map for trade facilitation and will monitor the implementation of TFA.



NPS: PFRDA lowers minimum contribution to Rs 1,000 per year
Insurance regulator PFRDA has substantially lowered the minimum annual contribution to Rs 1,000 to keep the account active in order to encourage more people to join the National Pension System.
  • Priorly instead of 1000, a subscriber had to contribute at least Rs 6,000 in a financial year to keep the Tier-1 account running.

1st BIO-CNG project in India inaugurated in Pune
Pune based Primove Engineering Private Limited Commissioned India’s first Bio-CNG plant which will use agricultural residue to generate CNG which in-turn can be an alternate fuel to the Automobiles that run CNG.
  • The CNG generation is doneby using agriculture residue. Over 600 million tonnes of agricultural waste is generated per year in the country.
  • It has been set up as a Proof of Concept (PoC)that can be replicated elsewhere. Primove has coughed out around Rs 4.5 crore in the plant.
  • The process involves treating the waste with a special bacterial solution, after which the gas so generated is cleaned and compressed for use in vehicles.
  • The Bio-CNG has got nod from the by Ministries of Road Transport as well as Chief Controller of Explosives.

India’s first Nuclear Suppliers’ Insurance Policy unveiled by INIP
State-run General Insurance Corporation of India in association with non-life insurance companies unveiled the Nuclear Supplier’s Insurance Policy (NSIP). It is first of its kind in India.
  • The policy was launched by Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman Sekhar Basu in Mumbai.
  • The move comes a year after launching the Rs 1,500 crore India Nuclear Insurance Pool (INIP) which is the 27th global nuclear insurance pool which was launched.
  • As part of this iniative New India Assurance Co (NIAC) and INIP will issue the policy and administer the claims on behalf of the pool.
  • The company NIAC couple of months back issued a policy for nuclear power plants operators under INIP by underwriting premium to the tune of Rs 100 crore.

India’s exports better placed in product diversification: Study
According to the study conducted by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry India’s exports are better placed in terms of product diversification as the top ten export products account for 58 per cent of the total export items accounted.
  • The study observes the concentration of the top 10 export products for the major economies, including Hong Kong (89 per cent), the Republic of Korea (86 per cent), Japan (77 per cent), the UK (71 per cent), Germany (70 per cent), the US (68 per cent), China (68 per cent), the Netherlands (63 per cent) and France (60 per cent).
  • The study went on to say that India has consistently diversified in terms of export as the concentration of the top ten export products was 60 per cent in 2010 and 58 per cent in 2015.
  • The country placed 19th place in the list of exporters with merchandise exportsvalued at $262 billion.

M S Subbulakshmi honoured at UN on Independence Day
Legendary carnatic vocalist M. S. Subbalakshmi  honoured at the United Nations on India’s 70th Independence Day by a performance by Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman .UN also releasing Postal Stamp of MS Subbulakshmi to mark her 100thBirth Anniversary.



Four Indians of Bangalore firm clinch Guinness records title after making largest dirt cake
Bangalore based Bangalore Baking Buddies has entered their name in Guinness World Records 2016 after making a world largest dirt that weighed a whopping 1,078 kg was unveiled at The Park hotel in Bangalore.
  • The Cake was prepared by bakers Danish Ali, Dr Archana Diwan, Nidhi Bagri and Poonam Ankur Shrishrimal, who took over 10 hours to complete it.
  • The specially made dirt cake prepared using sandwich cookies and pudding in combination with other ingredients to create a dessert that has a dirty, gardenlike look.
  • The dirt cake was distributed to 17 institutions and some schools in the vicinity after the show case.

Tech Giant Microsoft’s Xbox Acquires seattle based Live Streaming Platform – Beam 
Microsoft’s Xbox team acquired Beam, an interactive live streaming platform for gamers on August 12.
  • Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. It represents a series of video game consoles developed by Microsoft, with three consoles released in the sixth, seventh, and eighth generations respectively.
  • The brand also represents applications (games), streaming services, and an online service by the name of Xbox Live. The brand was first introduced on November 15, 2001 in the United States, with the launch of the original Xbox console.
  • The seattle based Beam was launched 8 months ago by an 18-year-old Matt Salsamendi and this startup has 24 employees.
  • It is noted that Beam emerged as the Battlefield winner, winning $50,000. In June, Salsamendi and cofounder James Boehm, 20, were named Thiel Fellows in June 2016. Investor Peter Thiel’s organization pays young entrepreneurs $100,000 over the course of two years in exchange for skipping college or dropping out to work on their own ventures.

New sensor developed to detect heart attacks in just a minute
A team of researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology(UNIST) in South Korea has developed a new electrical immunosensor for swift and reliable diagnosis of heart Attack.
  • The research team includes one of Indian-origin, Abhinav Sharma from UNIST made the device that holds considerable potential for use as a platform for sensing distinct types of proteins.
  • The electrical immunosensor measures within a minute and able to rapidly diagnose the level of heart attacks at the point of care.
  • The sensor uses a single droplet of blood to identify the level of cardiac troponin, a type of protein that is excreted by the heart muscle into the blood which causes acutemyocardial infarction, also called heart attack.
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