Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 14th and 15th February, 2016. These are important for the upcoming LIC AAO 2016.
Current Affairs at a Glance - 14th and 15th February, 2016
Information Technology sector employees get the highest pay in India with a median gross hourly salary of Rs. 346.42, while those in the manufacturing sector get paid the least at Rs. 254.04, says a report. According to Monster Salary Index (MSI), the IT sector is the highest paying sector in India, but only 57.4 per cent are satisfied with their salary.
Mukesh Ambani-led group firm Reliance Jio Infocomm and eight global telecom players MTS, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Millicom, Orange, Rogers, TeliaSonera and TIM will build a new partnering operator alliance aimed at bringing innovative products and services to customers around the world.
Vedanta Limited has reached an understanding with the Government of Odisha to commission an aluminum park in Jharsuguda.
Mahindra & Mahindra to invest Rs 8,000 cr in Maharashtra
As per the Swachh Survekshan results announced by the government on Monday, Dhanbad in Bihar was said to be the dirtiest city while Mysuru won the crown for the cleanest city.
LAMITYE 2016, the 7th joint military training exercise between the Indian Army and the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) began on 15 February 2016.
Barsimlaguri Becomes Northeast's First 'Smart Village'
1st Mega Food Park (MFP) of Madhya Pradesh was on 12 February 2016 inaugurated at Panwa village in Kasarwad tehsil of Khargone district.
Jugnoo, leading mobile app that offers largest network of auto rickshaws across country, has signed a dual deal with popular TV and film actress Saumya Tandon. The actress who has been appointed ambassador will also invest in the auto rickshaw agregator.
Hypercity names Ramesh Menon as new CEO
Ashok Chawla appointed as Chairman of TERI
Indian-American Ranvir Trehan named Kennedy Centre trustee
The 69th British Academy Films Awards (BAFTAs) were announced on 14 February 2016. The award ceremony was held at the Royal Opera House in London. Wilderness drama The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, won the Best Film Award. Brooklyn was named the Outstanding British Film. Leading Actor award was conferred to Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant. Brie Larson won Leading Actress Award for Room. Alejandro G. Iñárritu won Best Director awardfor The Revenant.
Tata Steel wins TIME's best in class for manufacturing award
World Radio Day observed on 13 February
Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis on 14 February 2016 won the 2016 St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy in St. Petersburg, Russia.
West Indies beats India to win their first U-19 World Cup
Sindh becomes first Pakistan province to adopt Hindu Marriage Bill
Biraja Prasad, who was posted recently as Ambassador to Tajikistan, passed away.
Finance/Industry/Economy –
IT highest-paying sector in India, manufacturing least: Monster Salary Index
Information Technology sector employees get the highest pay in India with a median gross hourly salary of Rs. 346.42, while those in the manufacturing sector get paid the least at Rs. 254.04, says a report.
According to Monster Salary Index (MSI), the IT sector is the highest paying sector in India, but only 57.4 per cent are satisfied with their salary.
BFSI sector comes in second with a median salary of Rs. 300.23. The relatively higher remuneration reflects the high level education of workers with 16-17 years of schooling, the report noted.
Notwithstanding, the government’s focus towards the sector through its Make in India initiative, manufacturing sector is paid the least, as employees in this segment are paid about 9 per cent lesser than the median salary for the entire Indian economy taken together at Rs. 279.7.
The findings of the manufacturing sector show that irrespective of the education levels, the salaries are still very low, even for a Master’s degree holder, the median hourly salary stands at Rs. 260.8, the report noted.
Additionally, foreign owned manufacturing companies pay nearly double of what Indian manufacturing firms pay their workers.
Reliance Jio, eight telcos to set up global operator
Mukesh Ambani-led group firm Reliance Jio Infocomm and eight global telecom players MTS, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Millicom, Orange, Rogers, TeliaSonera and TIM will build a new partnering operator alliance aimed at bringing innovative products and services to customers around the world.
With this collaboration, these telcos can reach a potential customer base of around 1 billion in more than 80 countries, besides allowing partner businesses to more efficiently and quickly bring innovative products and services.
The alliance is an open network of 'like-minded' operators worldwide with complementary geographical footprints.
It focuses on exchanging best practices on how to bring partner propositions to the market, on joint efforts in partner scouting and will also exchange knowledge about upcoming trends and services amongst the group.
The alliance is covering all relevant product categories within an operator's business, mobile as well as fixed, B2C as well as B2B.
Currently, the alliance has established relationships with 30 innovative partner businesses including AirBnB, Celltick, Disconnect, Idoomoo, and Mojio amongst others and will be expanding to additional operators soon.
Vedanta, Odisha Govt tie up to commission Aluminum Park
Vedanta Limited has reached an understanding with the Government of Odisha to commission an aluminum park in Jharsuguda. The two sides reached an intention sharing on the sidelines of the Make in India Week in Mumbai today and a MoU would be signed in few months.
Abhijit Pati, CEO — Aluminum, Vedanta Limited said the park would attract an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in the first phase. The park would have units manufacturing foils, conductors and other aluminum users. Vedanta would be supplying molten aluminum metal from its adjoining plant in the area.
It would take 12-18 months to come up, Pati said in a teleconference. He said the park would be spread over 204 acre of government land adjacent to the Vedanta smelter in Jharsuguda. Permission for land acquisition was underway.
Mahindra & Mahindra to invest Rs 8,000 cr in Maharashtra
Automotive manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) plans to invest Rs 8,000 crore in manufacturing plants in Maharashtra as part of its expansion plan.
This investment will be made over a period of 7 years and will be utilised towards infrastructure development, product development and capacity expansion for vehicles to be rolled out from Mahindra's plants in Maharashtra. The projects will qualify as 'Ultra Mega Project'.
An MoU to this effect was signed by Apurva Chandra, principal secretary (industries), Government of Maharashtra, and Dr Pawan Goenka, executive director, Mahindra & Mahindra at the on-going Make in India Week event in Mumbai.
India –
Swachh Sarvekshan results: Mysuru is India's cleanest among 73 cities
As per the Swachh Survekshan results announced by the government on Monday, Dhanbad in Bihar was said to be the dirtiest city while Mysuru won the crown for the cleanest city.
Mysuru was judged cleanest among 73 cities.
Swachh Survekshan results is a cleanliness monitor based on extensive surveys across Indian cities carried out by Quality Council of India (QCI).
On the other hand, Navi Mumbai and Greater Mumbai made were grouped in "leader cities".
On the other hand, Chandigarh, Tiruchirapalli, Delhi (NDMC) and Vishakapatnam came after Mysuru in the top five cities which have high levels of sanitation and cleanliness.
In the Aspiring Leaders category Panaji leads the pack while Bihar's capital Patna was bunched in the group of laggards category.
Best Performing city in Information, Education and Behaviour Change Communication (IEBC) activity was Tiruchirappalli.
The best performing city in North East was Gangtok and Greater Mumbai got the Best Performing city among Mega Cities.
7th India, Seychelles joint military exercise LAMITYE 2016 began in Seychelles
LAMITYE 2016, the 7th joint military training exercise between the Indian Army and the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) began on 15 February 2016.
It will be a 2-week long exercise till 28 February 2016 and conducted at Seychelles Defence Academy (SDA) in Victoria, Seychelles.
Lamitye, which means friendship in Creole dialect, will be conducted with the aim of enhancing military cooperation and interoperability between the two countries.
Barsimlaguri Becomes Northeast's First 'Smart Village'
A remote nondescript, insurgency-ravaged village in Assam along Indo- Bhutan border has earned the distinction of being the area’s first smart village.
Barsimaluguri, about 11 km from the Indo-Bhutan border, in Baksa district has been turned into a model smart village with 100 per cent toilets, solar power and pure drinking water, following an initiative taken by a few individuals under the aegis of Nanda Talukdar Foundation (NTF).
The work to turn Barsimaluguri, a hamlet of 234 households of farmers, small traders and daily wage earners, into a smart village began on January 15, 2015 and the first step in this direction was to set up a model village working committee led by villagers Dinesh Bhuyan and Dipu Choudhury.
The first work initiated by the committee was setting up the water purification plant and now this village is perhaps the only one in the region to have a reverse osmosis plant.
1st Mega Food Park in Madhya Pradesh inaugurated at Panwa
1st Mega Food Park (MFP) of Madhya Pradesh was on 12 February 2016 inaugurated at Panwa village in Kasarwad tehsil of Khargone district.
The MFP, named after Indus, was inaugurated by Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries.
Details related to the Mega Food Park
It was set up by M/s Indus mega Food Part Pvt. Ltd at an estimated cost of 127.70 crore rupees in an area of 53.78 acres.
It has a Central Processing Centre at Khargone and three Primary Processing Centres are being set up at Bedia, Ratlam and Ujjain to provide strong backward linkages.
Appointments –
Jugnoo ropes in TV star Saumya Tondon as brand ambassador
Jugnoo, leading mobile app that offers largest network of auto rickshaws across country, has signed a dual deal with popular TV and film actress Saumya Tandon.
The actress who has been appointed ambassador will also invest in the auto rickshaw agregator.
The association is in alignment with the new fad of Indian start-ups being backed by Bollywood. Celebrities are either putting in money or endorsing products by becoming their brand ambassadors.
While their monetary investment definitely helps, but the popularity factor they induce into the entire scenario is commendable.
Saumya Tandon is currently playing 'Anita' in popular comedy series 'Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hai'. She also had the opportunity to work with Shah Rukh Khan as co-host in 'Zor Ka Jhatka: Total Wipeout'.
Hypercity names Ramesh Menon as new CEO
Shoppers Stop-owned hypermarket chain HyperCITY today announced appointment of key management executives, key among them being Ramesh Menon as chief executive officer. Menon was earlier with Reliance Communcations as national head of wireless operations.
Yogesh Bisht was named vice president (human resources). Bisht has 21 years of experience in hospitality, retail and real estate.
Hypercity has named Manoj Jain as vice president of marketing, loyalty and visual merchandising.
Ashok Chawla appointed as Chairman of TERI
The Governing Council of TERI on 12 February 2016 appointed Ashok Chawla, former Finance Secretary to the Government of India and former Chairman of the Competition Commission, as its new Chairman.
Chawla replaced B V Sreekantan, who was serving as the Chairman of TERI. Ajay Mathur, who had replaced Rajendra Kumar Pachauri as director-general when the latter was made executive vice-president, was also included in the governing council.
On the other hand, the Council also announced that Pachauri, who had been the Head of the Institute since 1982 will be on leave from TERI, TERI Governing Council, and TERI University.
Indian-American Ranvir Trehan named Kennedy Centre trustee
President Barack Obama plans to appoint Ranvir Trehan, an alumnus of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India, as general trustee on Board of the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in the American capital.
Dedicated to the memory of President John F. Kennedy, the Kennedy Centre is the busiest performing arts facility in the US and annually hosts about 2,000 music, dance and theatre performances for audiences totalling nearly two million.
It the also supports artists in the creation of new work and serves as a leader in arts education.
Awards & Honors –
69th BAFTA Awards Given
The 69th British Academy Films Awards (BAFTAs) were announced on 14 February 2016. The award ceremony was held at the Royal Opera House in London.
The awards were announced to honour the best British and international contributions to film in 2015.
Wilderness drama The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, won the Best Film Award. Brooklyn was named the Outstanding British Film while Inside Out won the Best Animated Film. Amy won the award in Best Documentary category.
Awards
Leading Actor - Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant
Leading Actress - Brie Larson for Room
Supporting Actor - Mark Rylance for Bridge of Spies
Supporting Actress - Kate Winslet for Steve Jobs
Best Director - Alejandro G. Iñárritu for The Revenant
Tata Steel wins TIME's best in class for manufacturing award
American publishing company, Time Inc on Sunday announced the winners of the inaugural TIME India awards, honouring leaders for manufacturing excellence in India, at the Make in India week here.
McKinsey & Company is the knowledge partner for the awards. The awards encompassed three categories: Best in class manufacturing, manufacturing innovator of the year and young maker of the year.
Tata Steel won the award for best in class for manufacturing, while Hero MotoCorp was named the manufacturing innovator of the year and Yogesh and Rajesh Agrawal of Ajanta Pharma Limited were declared winners of the TIME India Young Maker of the Year.
Film on conservation efforts by Nagaland villagers won Golden Beaver Award
Nagaland is changing, But..., a film on conservation efforts by villagers, on 13 February 2016 won the Golden Beaver Best Film Award in the institutional category at the 6th National Science Film Festival and Competition in Mumbai.
The film also received the technical excellence award for best sound design at the festival, organized by Vigyan Prasar of the Department of Science and Technology.
Renowned film maker M S Sathyu presented the award to the director of the film, Gurmeet Sapal.
Days –
World Radio Day observed on 13 February
World Radio Day was observed globally on 13 February 2016 with the theme Radio in Times of Emergency and Disaster.
To mark the occasion, various activities conducted across India celebrating importance of radio in the day to day life.
In Odisha, a two-day annual international event Outreach International Radio Fair 2016 was inaugurated in Bhubaneswar.
Sports –
Sania Mirza, Martina Hingis won 2016 St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy
Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis on 14 February 2016 won the 2016 St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy in St. Petersburg, Russia.
To win the title, the top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair defeated the Russian-Czech team of Vera Dushevina and Barbora Krejcikova by 6-3 6-1 in the women’s doubles final.
For the duo, the victory in the final was consequent 40 match win. Also, the title was the fourth in the 2016 season and the 13th overall.
Belgian Hugo Broos appointed as Cameroon's new football coach
The Cameroon Football Federation has announced that Belgian coach Hugo Broos was appointed as the new coach of the national team.
The 63-year-old former defender of Anderlecht and Club Brugge coached the two Belgian teams and also trained Turkey's Trabzonspor and UAE's Al-Jazira, among others, reports Efe.
Broos's assistant will be his compatriot Sven Vandenbroeck, the governing body said on Saturday.
West Indies beats India to win their first U-19 World Cup
The West Indies produced an outstanding bowling performance to outclass India by five wickets in the final match to win their maiden U-19 World Cup cricket tournament at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here on Sunday.
Batting first, India were bundled out for a meagre 145 runs in 45.1 overs, thanks to Ryan John (3-38) and Alzarri Joseph (3-39).
In reply, Keacy Carty scored a match-winning knock of unbeaten 52 alongside Keemo Paul (40 not out) as the Windies chased down the total, reaching the target in 49.3 overs.
Bangladesh all-rounder Mehedi Hasan was awarded the Player of the Series trophy.
World –
Sindh becomes first Pakistan province to adopt Hindu Marriage Bill
Pakistan’s Sindh Assembly today passed the Hindu Marriage Bill making the province the first in the country to allow the minority community to register their marriages, amid calls from a leading Hindu group to remove a controversial clause in the landmark bill.
The bill, moved in the assembly by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nisar Khuhro, will apply to entire Sindh province, which has a sizeable population of Hindus.
It was passed after a national parliamentary panel last week cleared its draft, paving way for registration of marriage and divorce for the Hindu community in Pakistan.
The bill fixes the minimum age of marriage at 18.
According to the bill, it is necessary that a marriage is solemnised after consent of both male and female and at least two witnesses must be present at the time of the solemnisation and registration of the marriage.
According to the bill, every marriage being solemnised under this act will be registered with the union council/ward within 45 days of the solemnisation.
Biocon gets its first generics approval in the European Union
Biopharma major Biocon has received its first generic formulations approval in the regulated markets for a drug to reduce cholesterol. The company will begin selling its Rosuvastatin Calcium tablets indicated for hyperlipidemia or mixed dyslipidemia in 15 European countries starting financial year 2017.
Biocon was the first generic company to receive Certificate of Suitability (CEP) for the formulation from the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM) and will collaborate with regional partners to market the drug. The move will allow the company to address a $1.2 billion opportunity that exists in Europe.
The approval will also make it easier for Biocon to get regulatory clearance to sell its drugs in emerging markets which follow what US and European regulators say. It will also boost Biocon’s generic formulations business which is targeting 20-25 filings over the next few years.
Obituaries –
Indian Ambassador to Tajikistan Biraja Prasad passes away
Biraja Prasad, who was posted recently as Ambassador to Tajikistan, passed away on Saturday following a massive cardiac arrest.
Mr. Prasad, who belonged to Odisha, suffered a heart attack during sleep, family sources said here. Prasad, a career diplomat, had joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1998.
He had held different diplomatic assignments such as third secretary and then second secretary (Political) in Embassy of India, Moscow (Russian Federation) from 2000 to 2002 and Second Secretary (Political and Commercial).
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