ENGLISH NEWS - 22-09-2016

DAILY G.A UPDATE : 22-09-2016

In this competitive age, everyone needs to be updated with the current affairs. So, here is the important news for your upcoming exams like IBPS PO, IBPS CLERK, RRB and many more. 

1. Rafael deal cleared

The government has cleared the much anticipated deal with France for 36 Rafael fighter jets which will cost 7.878 billion Euros and will be signed in the presence of French Defence Minister Jean Yves Le Drian.

2. DMRC receives Outstanding PSU of year award

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) received the Outstanding PSU of the year award given by All India Management Association (AIMA).

3. Ritu Rani retires from international hockey

Former Indian women’s hockey captain Ritu Rani has retired from international hockey.

It was under Ritu’s captaincy that the Indian eves qualified for the Rio Olympics after a gap of 36 years. It was also under her captaincy that the national team had won a bronze medal at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and a silver medal at the 2013 Asian Champions Trophy.

4. Monika Kapil Mohta appointed as India's Ambassador to Sweden

Monika Kapil Mohta has been appointed as the India's Ambassador to Sweden. Mohta is a 1985 batch Indian Foreign Services officer. Previously, she has served as the ambassador of India to Poland and Lithuania.

5. Chinese billionnaire Jack Ma named advisor to UN trade body

An UN trade body has named Chinese billionaire Jack Ma a special advisor on youth entrepreneurship and small business, in a bid to promote growth and development around the world.

Ma, one of the richest man in China and the founder of commerce giant Alibaba, will be offering his experience and insight to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).

The appointment came after Ma represented small businesses in the G20 meetings that took place in China's eastern city of Hangzhou earlier this month.

Ma also hosted politicians and business leaders at his Alibaba headquarters, which are also in Hangzhou.

6. Industrialist Adi Godrej conferred Clinton Global Citizen Award

Industrialist Adi Godrej, the Chairman of Godrej Group, was conferred the 10th Annual Clinton Global Citizen Award for leadership in business and philanthropy.

7. Kotak Mahindra Bank launches app to open accounts

Private lender Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) has launched an application 'Kotak Now' that would allow new customers to open an account in a more simpler and cost-effective manner.

This is for the first time that a domestic lender has come up with such facility where a customer can open a bank account using its application.

"This is an end-to-end application wherein a customer will be able to open a bank account within 10 minutes, without worrying about visiting a branch or any other merchant," Deepak Sharma, Chief Digital Officer, Kotak Mahindra Bank said.

He further said that after downloading the application, the customer will have to enter their mobile number and then key -in a one-time password (OTP) to establish identity. After this they need to upload an image of either their passport or the Aadhaar card.

The customer will then have to get connect through a video chat with one of the KMB executives and the account gets opened, he added.

The bank tied-up with a German start-up 'WebID' which has a patented technology to establish identities through specially built algorithms and has already implemented it in 30 banks worldwide, Sharma informed.

8. No separate rail budget from next fiscal; Union Budget early

Ending 92-year-old tradition, the Cabinet decided to merge rail budget with the general budget and agreed in-principle to advance the date of its presentation in Parliament from the usual February end. 

The actual date for presentation of the general budget for 2017-18 will be decided by the government after taking into account the ensuing assembly elections, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said while briefing the media about the Cabinet decisions.

The Cabinet has also decided to do away with the Plan/ Non-Plan expenditure classification in Budget 2017-18 and replace with 'capital and receipt'. 

The government, Jaitley said, was in favour of advancing the budgetary exercise to that it could be completed before March 31 and expenditure on public-funded schemes could begin from April 1.

9. Government names monetary policy committee members

Government has appointed three academics as members of a new monetary policy committee that will set interest rates, in a landmark change to how central bank decisions are made in the country.

Allowed to select three members of the new six-member board, the government chose Chetan Ghate, a professor at Indian Statistical Institute; Pami Dua, a director at the Delhi School of Economics; and Ravindra Dholakia, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat.

Ghate was part of a five-member technical advisory committee that provided non-binding advice on interest rates to the RBI governor ahead of each policy review.

He was also a member of the panel that in 2014 recommended the changes to monetary policy, including targeting inflation and establishing a panel to decide rates.

They will each serve for a term of four years, "or until further orders, whichever is earlier," according to the statement.

All are low-profile, India-based economists, unlike former Reserve Bank of India chief Raghuram Rajan, a fixture on the global policy circuit who rubbed Modi's nationalist supporters up the wrong way with his blunt social commentary about India.

The other three members of the monetary policy committee will come from the RBI and will include new Governor Urjit Patel, who will be the tie-breaker in any split decision, along with two senior officials from the monetary policy department.

The committee will be responsible for ensuring consumer inflation stays within a range of 2 to 6 percent, a target that was previously announced by the government.

10. 31 Indian institutes feature in list of top 980 universities in World

Thirty-one Indian institutions feature in a list of 980 best universities in the world with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru edging closer to the top 200. Leading among the Indian universities, IISc has claimed a spot in the 201-250 band, its highest ever position.

The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2016, issued on Thursday, has ranked 980 institutions from 70 countries. The list was subject to an independent audit by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Second among the top Indian institutions is IIT-Bombay, which has found a place in the top 400. While there are 14 new entrants like Tezpur University from Assam and Amity University, five of the 2015 ranked universities -- IIT Kharagpur, IIT Guwahati, Panjab University, Amrita University and Andhra University -- saw a drop in their rankings this year. The country also has four new entries in the top 800, which are National Institute of Technology (Rourkela), Sri Venkateswara University, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Tezpur University.

University of Oxford, UK topped the overall list, pushing California Institute of Technology, US from first position last year to second. Among the top 10, seven are from the US, while three are from the UK. At number nine, ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich) is the lone non-US and -UK institution in the top 10. Two institutes have been placed at the tenth position.

11. Forbes names Mukesh Ambani as India’s richest for ninth year

Industrialist Mukesh Ambani was named India’s richest person for a ninth year in a row with a sharp increase in networth to USD 22.7 billion, while Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi was ranked a distant second with a wealth of USD 16.9 billion in the Forbes list of India’s 100 Richest People.

The Hinduja Family moved up to the third position (USD 15.2 billion) on the annual Forbes list of India’s 100 Richest People. Wipro’s Azim Premji slipped one place to fourth with a networth of USD 15 billion.

Patanjali Ayurved’s Acharya Balkrishna, known as a close associate of yoga guru Ramdev, has made a surprise entry at the 48th position with a networth of USD 2.5 billion on the list compiled by the American business magazine known for its rich lists.

Forbes said the combined networth of India’s 100 wealthiest is USD 381 billion (nearly Rs 25.5 lakh crore), a rise of 10 per cent from USD 345 billion in 2015.

Mukesh Ambani’s wealth rose in the past one year from USD 18.9 billion to USD 22.7 billion (over Rs 1.5 lakh crore) on 21 per cent surge in share price of Reliance Industries, the flagship company of his group, which recently launched 4G mobile services with much fanfare. He was ranked 36th in the global rich list.

Younger brother Anil Ambani was ranked 32nd with a networth of USD 3.4 billion, down from 29th spot last year.

Shanghvi also retained his second position, though his wealth fell by USD 1.1 billion due to plunge in share price of his group firm Sun Pharma, the world’s fifth largest generic drug maker, Forbes said.

Hinduja brothers rose to the third spot by displacing Premji and saw their worth rising to USD 15.2 billion, from USD 14.8 a year ago.