Important Current Affairs 12th July 2016

Airtel Tops Corporate Transparency List

1. Bharti Airtel has been ranked first in a listing of 100 emerging multinational companies in organisational transparency.
2. This was according to report by Transparency International.
3. In the latest edition of Transparency in Corporate Reporting,100 of the fastest-growing companies based in 15 emerging market countries
4. The telco was followed by Tata Comm, Mahindra & Mahindra & Tata Motors.

Centre Forms Panel on Pulses Crisis

1. The Centre has constituted a high-powered panel under Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian,to provide a long-term solution to India’s pulses crisis
2. The panel will revisit the minimum support price & bonus mechanism.
3. The govt also expanded the buffer stock by 1.2 million tones.
4. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by FM Arun Jaitley,Ram Vilas Paswan & Urban Minister Venkaiah Naidu.

Google to Train 2 mn Developers in India

1. Google has launched a program to train 2 million developers in India on Android, its mobile operating system in the next 3 year period.
2. This is aimed at enabling them to make innovative mobile applications on the platform.
3. India is expected to have the largest developer population of 4 million by 2018, overtaking the U.S.
4. The aim is to help make India the global leader in mobile app development.

HDFC to Issue Masala Bonds

1. HDFC will launch the first sale of masala bonds by an Indian entity.
2. HDFC is the first Indian public issuer of masala bonds.
3. It has plan to raise at least Rs.2000 cr & have the option of raising Rs.1000 cr more from the sale in case of excess demand.
4. Masala bond refer to a financial instrument through which Indian entities can raise money from overseas markets in the rupee,not foreign currency.

Myntra Acquires Tech Start-up Cubeit

1. Online fashion retailer Myntra has acqui-hired Cubeit, a Bengaluru-based tech start-up focused on content aggregation on mobile.
2. Cubeit led by co-founders Sarthak Jain, Nithinkumar Gadiparthi & Prathamesh Juvatkar &was founded in 2014.
3. The company focuses on building mobile applications which allow users to aggregate content from anywhere.
4. Cubeit is Myntra’s third technology-led acquisition.

Coal India Board Clear Buy Back Proposal

1. Coal India Ltd (CIL) has cleared the proposal of buyback of equity shares following a marathon board meeting.
2. The CIL board decided to buy back 1.72% of its shares by using Rs 3,650 crore from its reserves.
3. Its board has approved the buyback of 108,955,223 equity shares on a proportionate basis at Rs 335 a piece.
4. The money would earn from the buyback would be used to fund developmental projects.

Ghostbuster Gaurav Tiwari Dies

1. One of India’s most famous paranormal investigator Gaurav Tiwari has passed away.
2. He was was the founder CEO of the Indian Paranormal Society,Set up in 2009.
3. The paranormal society aims to educate people and help them get rid of their fears and bust myths regarding the paranormal.
4. Gaurav is had visited over 6,000 `haunted’ locations and investigated hauntings.

Antoine Named Best Player of Euro 2016

1. France forward Antoine Griezmann was named Euro 2016’s Player of the Tournament by UEFA’s technical observers.
2. Griezmann finished the tournament as top scorer with six goals.
3. But he could not help the host nation to victory in the final, which they lost 1-0 to Portugal .
4. The technical observers were in unanimous agreement that he was the tournament’s outstanding player.

Renato Named Euro 2016 Young Player

1. Renato Sanches was named as Young Player of the Tournament at Euro 2016 after helping Portugal win the title in France.
2. He featured in six of Portugal’s seven matches in the tournament & netted his first international goal against Poland in the quarter-final.
3. He was already the youngest player to play for the Portugal national team.
4. The award is open to players born in 1994 or later.

Maria Sharapova Out of Rio Olympics

1. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has put back its ruling on the two-year doping ban for Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova for two months to September.
2. It means ruling the tennis superstar out of the Rio Olympics.
3. Sharapova was tested positive for the banned medication meldonium during in January.
4. If the ban is upheld it would almost certainly end one of sport’s most high-profile careers.

President Confers 51st Jnanpith Award

1. President Pranab Mukherjee has conferred the 51st Jnanpith Award on renowned writer, Dr. Raghuveer Chaudhari.
2. He has authored more than 80 books & some of his notable novels include Amrita, Venu Vatsala,Uparvas & Purvarang.
3. The Award is an Indian literary award presented  by the Bharatiya Jnanpith.
4. It is given to an author for the outstanding contribution towards literature,instituted in 1961

Kendrapada Sheep Gets Rare Status

1. The National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR) has conferred rare & singular species genetic recognition tag to the threatened breed of Kendrapara sheep found in Odisha.
2. A threatened breed of sheep found only in coastal Jagatsinghpur & Kendrapara districts of Odisha .
3. The genetically rare status will help to boost conservation effort to protect these domesticated threatened sheep.

India, Kenya Sign Seven Agreements-1

1. India & Kenya have signed 7 agreements following delegation-level talks headed by PM Modi & Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
2. The two sides signed a MoU in the area of defence cooperation.
3. Another MoU  for cooperation in the field of standardisation,between Bureau of Indian Standards & Bureau of Kenya Standards.
4. A third MoU was signed in the field of national housing policy development.

India, Kenya Sign Seven Agreements-2

1. According to another agreement, India will extend a line of credit of $15 million to Kenya, for SME’s.
2. An agreement signed for extension of a line of credit of $29.95 million by India to the Kenyan govt for upgrade of Rift Valley Textiles Factory ,Kenya.
3. Both sides signed a revised Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement.
4. A bilateral agreement on exemption of visa for holders of diplomatic passports.

Bihar Signs MoU with ADPC

1. The Bihar has signed an MoU with Bangkok-based Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC).
2. The ADPC will provide technical assistance to the state govt to implement the Roadmap for Disaster Risk Reduction in Bihar(2015-30).
3. One of the targets of the roadmap is cutting down the loss of human lives in natural disasters by 75% within 2030.
4. Bihar often faces disasters like flood, drought & earthquake.

North Korea to End Diplomat Comm with US

1. North Korea said it will end a diplomatic communication channel with the United States in retaliation for U.S. sanctions that target leader Kim Jong Un.
2. The U.S. govt last week imposed penalties on Kim and 10 other top officials for alleged human rights abuses.
3. North Korea is already sanctioned because of its nuclear weapons program.
4. It was the first time that Kim has been personally sanctioned.

Theresa May to become next British PM

1. Theresa May set to take over as next British Prime Minister after resignation of David Cameron.
2. Mr Cameron will tender his resignation to the Queen on Wednesday.
3. May elected leader of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party after David Cameron decided to step down following Brexit vote.
4. She will become the U.K.’s second female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher.

Christiana Nominated for UN Top Post

1. Costa Rica nominated former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres to be the next U.N. Secretary-General.
2. She is the 12th candidate to enter the race ahead of the first Security Council secret ballot.
3. She is credited for helping lead more than 190 countries to a global climate deal in Paris in Dec.
4. The 15-member Security Council will hold its first informal secret ballot on July 21.

Nimi Wins Gourmand World Cookbook Award

1. Cookbook author & food blogger Nimi Sunilkumar has won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for 2015-16.
2. She was bestowed for her cookbook 4 o’clock Temptations of Kerala.
3. It was chosen for the award in the Best Indian Cuisine Cookbook section.
4. Gourmand World Cookbook Award is famously known as the Oscar award in the field of cookery.
5. The award is organized to honour the best food books.

Astronomers Discover New Dwarf Planet

1. A new dwarf planet has been discovered beyond Neptune.
2. The planet is about 700 km in size & has been given the name 2015 RR245.
3. The planet was discovered by an international team of astronomers as part of the Outer Solar Systems Origins Survey.
4. The instrument that found it was Canada-France Hawaii Telescope.
5. A dwarf planet is a planetary object that is neither a planet nor a natural satellite.