Important Current Affairs 16th July 2016

ICICI to Train 1 lakh Youth by 2017

1. ICICI Academy aims to train one lakh youth in the country as part of its skill development programme.
2. ICICI Foundation aims to reach the milestone by March 2017.
3. It aims to enable the youth to acquire skills required to get the job or become self-employed.
4. ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth had launched the ICICI Academy for Skills in Oct 2013 to provide vocational training.

PFRDA Unveil Aadhar-based Authentication

1. Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has  unveiled an Aadhar-based authentication module for subscribers.
2. It also launched a mobile app for subscribers
3. The subscribers will be able to view their NPS account, latest details of scheme & the total value of the schemes through the app.
4. At present both National Pension System (NPS) & Atal Pension Yojana have 1.29 cr subscribers.

India, ADB Sign $100 mn Loan Pact

1. India & the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a $100 million loan agreement.
2. The agreement was signed to for strengthen irrigation, drainage & water management in the Vennar sub-basin of the Cauvery delta in Tamil Nadu.
3. The Cauvery river basin is a critical source of water for agriculture both within TN & neighbouring states.
4. The project aims to provide flood protection.

HDFC Raises Rs3,000cr with Masala Bond

1. Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) has raised Rs 3,000 crore through the country’s first masala bond issuance.
2. The funds have been raised at a fixed semi-annual coupon of 7.875% per annum and
3. Bonds have maturity tenor of three years & 1 month.
4. Masala bond refers to a bond through which Indian entities can raise money from foreign markets in rupee & not in foreign currency.

ShopClues Acquires Momoe

1. Online shopping platform ShopClues has acquired mobile payments firm Momoe Technologies to add a payment service to its platform.
2. The size of the deal was not disclosed.
3. Momoe allows users to pay offline merchants like restaurants, grocery stores,pharmacies, spas & salons
4. Using the app, customers can pay for products and services using credit cards, debit cards, net banking & mobile wallets.

Rome Hockey Olympian Joe Antic Dies

1. The former Indian hockey player Joe Antic has passed away.
2. He played at the centre half of the Rome Olympics squad in 1960 that won the silver medal.
3. After his playing days, he took up coaching.
4. He was one of the coaches in the Indian team’s World Cup camp in 1973.
5. He became the national coach of the Oman team that took part in the 1982 Asian Games.

No Pakistani Qualifies for Rio Olympics

1. None of Pakistani athletes have qualified for the Rio Olympics.
2. According to the Pakistan Olympic Association president Arif Hasan, the seven participants due to represent Pakistan at next month’s Rio Olympics have all been given wildcard entries.
3. Pakistan has not won a medal at the Olympics since winning the Bronze Medal at the 1992 Olympic Games.
4. More than 100 Indian athletes qualify for Rio.

Madhya Pradesh gets a ‘Happiness Dept’

1. Madhya Pradesh has become the first state in the country to set up a “happiness department”.
2. The state cabinet has decided to constitute a `happiness department’ to bring cheers to the life of common man.
3. The happiness dept will be manned by 20 employees & an initial budget allocation of Rs 3.6 crore
4. The government has also formed a state happiness institute which will identify techniques.

Nalanda Mahavihara now a World Heritage

1. UNESCO has declared Bihar’s ancient Nalanda University as a World Heritage Site.
2. The Nalanda site comprises of the archaeological remains of a monastic and scholastic institution dating from the 3rd century BC to the 13th century AD.
3. Besides Nalanda,the Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape in China,the Persian Qanat in Iran & the ceremonial centre of eastern Micronesia were also declared.

India becomes First YAWS-free Country

1. India was acknowledged as the first country in the world to become YAWS-free.
2. Union Minister of Health, JP Nadda received an official citation from the WHO for Elimination of Maternal & Neonatal Tetanus (MNTE) & for being YAWS-free.
3. YAWS is a kind of bacterial infection that affects skin, bones and joints.
4. Tetanus is another bacterial infection that leads to muscle spasms that can be fatal.

Amitabh to be the Face of ‘SBM’

1. Megastar Amitabh Bachhan will be the face of the “City Compost Campaign” under Swachh Bharat Mission(SBM).
2. He will encourage citizens to use compost produced from municipal solid waste.
3. He will appeal to all citizens to pledge to use only city compost in their gardens, farm houses & public gardens.
4. India has the potential to produce 54 lakh metric tonne of compost per annum from waste.

Rare ‘Marbled Map’ Butterfly Sighted

1. Rare Marbled Map butterfly was sighted in Eastern Ghats near PM Kota village of Maredumilli mandal in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.
2. This is the first time that the Marbled Map butterfly species, usually found in the north-east, was sighted in South India.
3. The butterfly was found by a group of green enthusiasts including N. Chandramohan Reddy, an Indian Forest Service officer.

KVR Murthy Appointed as CMD of Jute Corp

1. K.V.R. Murthy has taken over as chairman-cum-managing director of the Jute Corporation of India Ltd(JCI).
2. Murthy was earlier associated with Eastern Railways in the capacity of Chief Commercial Manager.
3. His appointment is for a period of 5 years or till the date of his superannuation, whichever is earlier.
4. JCI was set up in 1971 to provide helping hand in the raw jute sector.

Census on disabled Population Released

1. The Registrar General of India (RGI) has released Census 2011 data on disabled population.
2. More than half of the total disabled population in India are now literate, acc. to new numbers released from Census 2011.
3. Of the total disabled population of 2.68 crore in Census 2011, 1.46 crore or 54.5% were literates.
4. Among the disabled literate population, 9% males & 7.7% females are graduates.

President Inaugurates Skills Competition

1. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the first edition of “India Skills Competition”.
2. Skill India mission aims to train over 40 cr youth in India in different skills by 2022.
3. India Skills is a national competition to select the best talent who will lead India at the World Skills International Competition, scheduled in Abu Dhabi in 2017.
4. At the last event organised at Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2015.

Chinese Bullet Trains Cross Each Other

1. Two Chinese trains running at world-record speeds in opposite directions crossed each other on parallel tracks.
2. The two trains Golden Phoenix & Dolphin Blue travelling at 420 km per hour crossed on lines between Zhengzhou & Xuzhou.
3. The experiment set a world-first for trains traveling at such speed.
4. China has built over 16,000 kms of high-speed train tracks connecting most of the major cities

Turkey Appoints New Acting Army Chief

1. Turkey has appointed a new acting army chief of staff after an attempted coup to topple the government
2. General Umit Dundar, commander of the First Army has been appointed as acting army chief of staff.
3. First Army is a group of divisions within its land forces.
4. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he did not know whereabouts of former army chief Hulusi Akar.

Emirates Declared World’s Best Airline

1. Emirates was named World’s Best Airline at Skytrax World Airline Awards 2016
2. It has won the top honors at Skytrax World Airline Awards ceremony at the Farnborough International Airshow in England.
3. The survey measures quality standards across 41 key performance indicators in the airline industry.
4. This is the 4th time Emirates has earned the top award since Skytrax introduced the awards 15 yrs ago.

Russia To Deploy Air Defence Systems

1. Russia will deploy its most advanced S-400 air defence systems to the annexed Crimea peninsula in August.
2. Russia is currently using its older S-300 systems on the peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in March 2014.
3. The S-400  systems are Russia’s most modern anti-aircraft & missile defence systems.
4. Since Crimea’s annexation Russia has stepped up its military presence in the peninsula.

Dinosaur Fossil from 90 mn yrs Ago Found

1. Researchers in Argentina have excavated the fossil of a new carnivorous dinosaur that lived around 90 million years ago.
2. The 26-feet (8 metres) long dinosaur had two-fingered small forearms that were merely 2 feet (60 cm) long.
3. The dinosaur belonged to the theropods like other meat-eating dinosaurs.
4. It was named Gualicho shinyae, a combination of the name of an evil spirit called Gualichu.