Important Current Affairs 27th May 2016

Ujala Scheme launched in Gujarat

1. Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel launched the Central government’s Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) Scheme in the state.
2. Under the scheme domestic consumers will be provided LED bulbs at a subsidised rate.
3. Nearly 12 crores LED bulbs will be distributed in the next one year which will benefit about 1.21 cr consumers.
4. It will help consumers in saving considerable amount of money each year.

ATMs to have Chip-&-Pin Based Infra: RBI

1. RBI has directed all banks and white-label ATM operators to have chip-&-pin based card infrastructure.
2. ATM infrastructure continues to process the card transactions based on data from the magnetic stripe even though the cards are EMV chip & PIN based.
3. Banks have been mandated to ensure all existing ATMs installed by them can process of chip & pin cards by September 30, 2017.

Bangar Named India Coach for Zim Tour

1. Former India all-rounder Sanjay Bangar was appointed national head coach for the limited-overs tour of Zimbabwe.
2. Bangar had previously worked with the national team as the batting coach.
3. Ex-domestic cricketer Abhay Sharma was named fielding coach.
4. India will play the first One-Day International (ODI) on June 11.
5. The squad, comprising young &upcoming players will be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

EU Reaches Debt Relief Deal for Greece

1. Eurozone finance ministers have reached a deal with Greece to start debt relief for the country.
2. They have agreed to give Greece access to a €10.3-billion tranche of bailout funds.
3. The money would be split into two payments: €7.5 billion to be paid in June & €2.8 billion in September.
4. Greece urgently needs the next tranche of bailout money to repay big loans to the European Central Bank & IMF.

HRD Minister Launches Bharatavani Portal

1. The Union HRD Minister, Smt Smriti Zubin Irani has launched the multilingual knowledge portal www.bharatvani.in at Lucknow.
2. It has more than 130 dictionaries, glossaries & terminology books in text and PDF formats.
3. The ministry also launched the Bharatavani Multilingual App.
4. It will enable users to search for one language text in another as well as get meanings in different languages.

Two Indian-Americans Win US Spelling Bee

1. Jairam Jagadeesh Hathwar & Nihar Saireddy Janga were declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
2. Fifth grader Nihar is from Texas while seventh grader Jairam is from New York.
3. Nihar has also become the youngest winner of the bee on record.
4. This is for the ninth successive year that Indian- Americans won the prestigious Scripps Spelling Bee & 13th in the last 16 years.

India Ranks 5th in Green Energy Job

1. India ranks fifth in the world in renewable energy (RE) job creation, with 416,000 employed in the sector during 2015.
2. In the world, 8.1 million persons are employed in the clean energy space.
3. China tops the list with 3.5 million, followed by Brazil with 918,000.
4. This was according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (Irena) Annual Review 2016.

Baciro Dja Named PM of Guinea-Bissau

1. Guinea-Bissau President Jose Mario Vaz named Baciro Dja as prime minister.
2. Dja succeeds Carlos Correia, who was sacked earlier this month.
3. Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa,with an estimated population of 1,704,000.
4. It that has not seen a democratically elected leader serve a full term since independence in 1974.
5. It has had nine coups or attempted coups since 1980.

Para Athlete Saroha Wins Gold

1. Indian para-athlete Amit Kumar Saroha from Haryana has won the gold medal in men’s club throw at the 2016 French Open Athletics Championship in Paris.
2. Amit’s effort of 26.58 meter broke the Asian record which he had himself set at last year’s.
3. Amit has already qualified for the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
4. The French Open Athletics Championship was part of his preparation for Rio 2016.

Sunil Mittal Gets Harvard Alumni Award

1. Sunil Bharti Mittal has received the Alumni Achievement Award of Harvard Business School.
2. He is the founder & chairman of Bharti Enterprises.
3. The award is presented annually since 1968 & is the highest honour given to any alumni of the institute.
4. It is presented to those alumni who have contributed significantly to their companies & communities while upholding the highest standards.

Bullet Train to Run in India by 2023

1. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu has said the first bullet train will run in India in 2023.
2. The bullet train is expected to cover 508 km between Mumbai & Ahmedabad in about two hours,running at a max speed of 350 kmph.
3. The project is estimated to cost about Rs 97,636 crore, 81% of the funding will come by way of the loan from Japan.
4. The construction work is likely to begin by the end of 2018.