ENGLISH NEWS-26-07-2016

 DAILY G.A UPDATE : 26-07-2016

1. BSE, Mauritius Stock Exchange tie up to promote financial mkts 

Leading bourse BSE has entered into an agreement with Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) for collaboration in areas including investments, products and cyber security. The strategic partnership aims at enhancing exchange of knowledge, information, technology and expertise. 

"The BSE has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Stock Exchange of Mauritius identifying broad areas for collaboration, which inter-alia include, investments, products, cyber security and various other initiatives." the Indian exchange said in a statement. The MoU was signed during India Mauritius Global Partnership Conference, in the presence of Mauritius Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth and other dignitaries. 

"India and Mauritius have traditionally been wonderful partners. The relationship between the two countries is based on shared civilizational heritage, common relationship and culture. Many times, we refer to the relationship between two countries as cordial and umbilical, as well as unique and special," BSE Managing Director and Chief executive Ashish kumar Chauhan said. BSE is the world’s fastest exchange with a median trade speed of six microseconds, while SEM operates a multi-currency capital raising, listing and trading platform in four currencies -- dollar, euro, pound sterling and ZAR (South African Rand). 

2. B R Mani appointed National Museum chief 

Noted archaeologist B R Mani, who had supervised the excavation work in the disputed Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya in 2003, was appointed as Director General of National Museum. 

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved Mani's appointment to the post for three years or till attaining the age of 70 years, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training said. 

The museum at present holds approximately two lakh objects of a diverse nature, from across the country as well as abroad, and its holdings cover a time span of more than five thousand years of Indian cultural heritage. 

Budha Rashmi Mani had retired as Additional Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). 

He was head of the ASI's team to excavate the disputed Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in March 2003, following a High Court order. However, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had in May that year directed the Archaeological Survey of India to replace Mani with a new official. 

3. Ex-India football player Marto Gracias passes away 

Former India football player Marto Gracias died. He was 75. 

Gracias had represented the country in a couple of international tournaments and his notable feat was a hat-trick in Indias 4-0 win against Hong Kong in a league match of the 1967 Merdeka Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Born in Goa, he also played for Salgaocar SC for a couple of seasons before joining the Tata SC here in 1967 and representing the top club till he hung up his boots in 1978-79. 

4. IIT-B ranked 13 in QS University Rankings BRICS 2016 

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has moved up to rank 13 in the prestigious Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) University Rankings BRICS. 

The results for 2016 were released by QS, a global higher education analyst. 

"IIT Bombay ranks second in India, seven ranks below the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore at six," an IIT release stated. 

Since its last appearance in 2015 in the rankings, the institute has moved up three places. 

IIT Bombay’s overall score is 84.4 out of 100. It has a score of 99.1 in academic reputation, 100 in employer reputation, 91.5 in Citations per paper, 94.7 in Papers per faculty and 97.6 in staff with PhD, all scores out of a maximum of 100. 

Expressing his happiness on the significant achievement, Prof Devang Khakhar, Director, IIT Bombay said, "The improvement in ranks is a reflection of the progress being made by IIT Bombay, particularly in its research contributions." 

Two other IITs which rank in the top 20 are IIT Delhi at 15th and IIT Madras at 19th. 

BRICS QS University Rankings: BRICS 2016 is a ranking of the 250 top universities in the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). 

5. Verizon to buy Yahoo's core business for $4.8 billion in digital ad push 

Verizon Communications Inc said it would buy Yahoo Inc's core internet properties for $4.83 billion in cash, marking the end of the line for a storied Web pioneer and setting the stage for a big new internet push by the telecom giant. 

Verizon (VZ.N) will combine Yahoo's (YHOO.O) search, email and messenger assets as well as advertising technology tools with its AOL unit, which it bought last year for $4.4 billion. Verizon has been looking to mobile video and advertising for new sources of revenue outside the oversaturated wireless market. 

The No. 1 U.S. wireless operator is betting that it can take data on more than 200 million unique monthly visitors to Yahoo sites, many of them on mobile devices, and combine it with data on 150 million or so unique monthly AOL users and data on its own user base of over 100 million wireless subscribers to offer a more targeted service for advertisers. 

Barclays said last month Verizon could save $500 million a year in costs of acquiring internet traffic and other expenses by buying Yahoo's internet business. 

The deal likely means more investment in popular content sites such as AOL’s Huffington Post and Yahoo Finance when they become part of a much larger entity. 

“It now becomes somewhat easier to justify investing in content,” said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research. 

Verizon said it would provide more detail on the strategy behind the acquisition when it announces second-quarter earnings. 

6. Quikr acquires Hiree to boost job listing 

E-classified player Quikr has acquired Hiree, an online hiring platform, as part of its focus to tap the white collar job market. 

Hiree, which counts IT companies and start-ups among its customers, will be merged with Quikrs job vertical QuikrJobs and will operate out of the latter’s headquarters, Quikr said in a statement today. 

The combined entity will create a recruitment platform that connects over four million active candidates with recruiters across the country. No financial details were disclosed. 

IDG Ventures India-backed Hiree has Ravi Gururaj as an advisor to the company. Formerly called myNoticePeriod, Hiree has Raghu Krishnananda (former Yahoo executive), Shamsunder Talreja (owner of JetSet Capital) and Prashant Kirtane (CTO and co-founder of travelmob.com) as its angel investors. 

Quikr has been aggressively acquiring firms to expand its operations. Under QuikrHomes, it has acquired firms like Realty Exchange (IRX), realtycompass and CommonFloor in the last few months. It also made a strategic investment in A N Virtual Tech. 

7. Bappi Lahiri conferred Mahanayak Samman of West Bengal 

Bappi Lahiri, the renowned music director and singer, was conferred with West Bengal’s Mahanayak Samman awards by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Nazrul Mancha. 

Bappi Lahiri was awarded for his outstanding performances over the years. 

Other awards conferred on the occasion includes 

• Best director: Goutam Ghose and Kaushik Ganguly 

• Best actor (male) awards: Paran Bandyopadhyay and Jishu Sengupta 

• Best actor (female) award: Sohini Sarkar 

• Bishesh Sangeet Samman: Dwijen Mukhyopadhyay, Ajoy Chakraborty and Sandhya Mukherjee. 

• Maha Sangeet Samman: Shantanu Moitra, Mohammad Aziz, Kumar Bose and Shibaji Chattopadhyay. 

• Special Sangeet Samman: Sriradha Bandyopadhyay, Dileep Kumar Bose, Fakir Alamgir, and Nachiketa 

• Best Bengali films: Bela sheshe and Shankhachil 

Goutam Ghose, a critically-acclaimed filmmaker, is known for helming National Award winning films like Sankhachil and Abar Aranye. 

Mahanayak Samman awards 

The Mahanayak Samman awards were instituted in 2012 in the memory of Bengali matinee idol Uttam Kumar who is revered in this part of India as "Mahanayak (Great hero)". It is the highest film award given by the West Bengal government for outstanding performance of the artists of Bengali cine-world. 

The state government felicitates actors, technicians and music directors at this annual event on the occasion of the death anniversary of Uttam Kumar on July 24. 

8. Myntra acquires Jabong from Global Fashion Group 

Flipkart-owned Myntra said it has acquired Jabong from Global Fashion Group for an undisclosed amount, a move that will mark further consolidation in Indias booming e-commerce industry. 

Myntra, which itself was acquired by Flipkart in 2014 in an estimated Rs 2,000 crore deal, will have access to a combined base of 15 million monthly active users. 

9. Ravichandran Ashwin claims career-best second spot in ICC Test rankings 

India's off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin jumped three places to his career-best second spot among Test bowlers after he took 12 wickets in India's 124-run win over South Africa in Nagpur, while his teammates Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja also gained places in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings released. 

Ashwin's ascent means that England pacer James Anderson and Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah drop to joint-third on 846 points, while England's Stuart Broad falls to fifth. Indian leg-spinner Amit Mishra jumped two spots to be 31st, while left-arm spinner Jadeja moved up a place to be 11th, according to an ICC release. 

Among other bowlers who created big impact last week, Josh Hazlewood produced man-of-the-match figures of nine wickets for 136 runs as Australia clinched the three-Test series 2-0 inside three days in the inaugural day-night test. In doing so, the 24-year-old soared 10 places to 10th. 

Despite dropping three places to 18th, there was good news for Peter Siddle who reached the 200 Test wicket milestone in Adelaide. 

Other bowlers to head in the right direction during the Nagpur and Adelaide Tests were South African Imran Tahir (up by 14 places to 35th), while New Zealander Doug Bracewell is one place and a single point further back in 36th after gaining four places. 

There were also career-high gains for Australia's Mitchell Marsh (up five to 55th) and South African Dean Elgar (up five to 68th) in a list which continues to be led by South Africa's Dale Steyn. 

Meanwhile, Murali Vijay is the top-ranked India batsman in 12th position, while his captain Virat Kohli has moved up one place to 16th. There were also gains for Shikhar Dhawan (up one to 32nd) and wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha (up 10 to a career-high 92nd).