Important Current Affairs 26th July 2016

Verizon Buys Yahoo for $4.83 bn

1. Verizon Communications has said it would buy Yahoo!’s core internet properties for $4.83 billion in cash.
2. The purchase of Yahoo’s operations will boost Verizon’s AOL internet business.
3. It will also give it access to Yahoo’s ad technology tools & assets such as mail . search & messenger.
4. The deal is expected to close in early 2017.
5. Verizon is the No. 1 US wireless operator.

SBI, IOC Link up to Empower Farmers

1. SBI & Indian Oil Corporation have signed an agreement to implement financial inclusion programme for farmers.
2. The programme will be implemented through the oil company’s Kisan Seva Kendras.
3. SBI will provide farmers access to banking services by using the IOC’s kiosks & supplement their incomes by earning revenue on banking transactions.
4. IOC has set up around 6,500 KSKs in rural and remote areas.

RBI Imposes Rs 2 cr Penalty on HDFC Bank

1. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 2 crore on HDFC Bank.
2. It has imposed a penalty for lapses in adhering to Know Your Customer (KYC) & anti-money laundering (AML) norms.
3. The RBI has imposed a penalty on the bank on account of pendency in receipt of bills of entry relating to advance import remittances made.
4. Also lapses in adhering to KYC/AML guidelines.

TCS Ranked Top Employer in IT Industry

1. Software services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been ranked as the top employer in the Indian IT industry by the representative body Nasscom.
2. TCS was followed by its peers Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro and Capgemini.
3. TCS had a total headcount of 3.62 lakh while Infosys & Wipro had 1.97 lakh and 1.73 lakh respectively.
4. Women account for 33.8% of the TCS total employee numbers.

Ericsson sacks CEO Hans Vestberg

1. Ericsson has fired CEO Hans Vestberg, in the face of poor stock market performance.
2. Vestberg is a 25-year veteran of Ericsson & had been CEO since 2010.
3. Ericsson’s share price has declined in recent years, as the company faced increased competition from Nokia and Huawei.
4. CFO Jan Frykhammar will act as temporary CEO until a replacement is found.

Digital Payments to touch $500 b in 2020

1. Digital payments market size in the country is expected to touch $500 billion by 2020.
2. The Digital Payments 2020′ report was jointly published by Google and Boston Consulting Group,
3. The report projects that non-cash contribution in the consumer payments segment will double to 40%.
4. Digital payments, which include direct bank transfers such as RTGS & NEFT, online payments & use of mobile wallets

Hinduja Commission Thermal Power Project

1. Hinduja National Power Corporation Limited (HNPCL), part of the Hinduja Group has commissioned its 1,040 Mw Power project at Visakhapatnam.
2. The power plant consists of two units of 520 Mw each.
3. The plant will cater to the growing power needs of industry in & around Visakhapatnam and the southern Region.
4. The project cost is estimated at $1.25 billion& has been financed by a mix of debt and equity.

IRCTC offers Rs 10 lakh Insurance Cover

1. Railway passengers booking tickets through the Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corp,IRCTC website can avail a travel accident cover.
2. IRCTC will provide insurance of 10 lakh rupees at a premium of one rupee from Sept this year.
3. The insurance cover is besides the compensation given by the Railways.
4. The insurance will provide coverage against death, injury & disabilities caused due to accidents.

Mumbai 5s wins Premier Futsal Title

1. Mumbai 5s have been crowned the champions of the inaugural edition of Premier Futsal
2. They beat Michel Salgado’s Kochi 5s 3-2 in a dramatic penalty shootout as after forty minutes they sides were locked at 1-1.
3. Futsal is a variant of association football played on a smaller field and mainly indoors.
4. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is the goalkeeper.

Russia not given Blanket Ban by IOC

1. Russia will not receive a blanket ban from Rio 2016 following the country’s doping scandal.
2. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will leave it up to individual sports’ governing bodies to decide if Russian competitors are clean and should be allowed to take part.
3. The decision follows a report that said Russia has operated a state-sponsored doping programme.
4. The Rio Games start on 5 August.

Feliciano Lopez wins Swiss Open

1. Top-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain won his first career clay-court title in the Swiss Open final.
2. He defeated 95th-ranked Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-4, 7-5.
3. This is Lopez’s fifth career tournament title followed two on grass and two on hard courts.
4. Lopez arrived in tournament ranked No. 21 & should return to the top 20 after winning the tournament.

President Completes 4 years in Office

1. President Pranab Mukherjee has completed four years in the office.
2. On the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated Phase-II of the Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum.
3. The museum will depict the story of the planning & construction of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
4. The life & work of 13 presidents of India since 1950 & the beauty and environment of the campus will also feature in it.

LS Passes Bill to Set up six new IITs

1. The Lok Sabha has passed the Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
2. The bill seeks to set up six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
3. The new IITs are to come up in Tirupati, Palakkad, Goa, Dharwad, Jammu & Bhilai.
4. The Bill also seeks to bring the Indian School of Mines,Dhanbad, within the ambit of the Act.
5. The government will mobilise Rs 20,000 crore for IITs.

BRICS Policy Planning Dialogue Begin

1. BRICS policy planning dialogue meeting begin in Patna,Bihar.
2. Delegates of BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India,China & South Africa are attending the meeting.
3. The dialogue will provide an opportunity for exchange on strategic assessments of internal situation and the regional situation of each country.
4. The dialogue meeting is being held ahead of the 8th BRICS Summit to be held in Goa in Oct.

B R Mani Appointed National Museum Chief

1. The govt has appointed Dr Buddha Rashmi Mani as the Director General of the National Museum.
2. He had supervised the excavation work in the disputed Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya in 2003.
3. The museum at present holds approx two lakh objects of a diverse nature from across the country as well as abroad.
4. Its holdings cover a time span of more than 5000 years of Indian cultural heritage.

Red Corridor to be Redrawn by Govt.

1. The govt is set to reduce the number of Maoist-affected districts by about a fifth.
2. There are 106 districts that span 10 States are described as those affected by Left Wing Extremism & constitute the Red Corridor.
3. The Centre now plans to remove around 20 of the 106 Maoist-affected districts.
4. The Red Corridor is a part of India that experiences considerable Naxalite Maoist insurgency.

Solar Plane Ends Round-the-World Tour

1. Solar Impulse2 has completed the first-ever round-the-world flight by a solar plane.
2. Bertrand Piccard piloted the plane for a final time from Cairo to the UAE.
3. The record-breaking flight covered more than 40,000km without a single drop of jet fuel.
4. The aircraft is uniquely powered by 17,248 solar cells that transfer energy to four electrical motors that power the plane’s propellers.

Salva Kiir Removes Riek Machar as Deputy

1. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has removed Riek Machar as first vice president.
2. Mr Machar has not been seen since the clashes,which left 300 people dead & threatened to revive a civil war that has killed tens of thousands.
3. Mr Machar was replaced by Taban Deng Gai, a former peace negotiator.
4. South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011 but its short history has been marred by civil war.

US Special Force Accept Female Candidate

1. Two women will soon be the first female soldiers to undergo training to become members of the Green Berets, the US Army’s Special Forces.
2. They have been selected for special forces assessment.
3. President Barack Obama’s administration decided in 2013 that all combat positions should be open to women by 2016.
4. Currently, women account for 15.6% of the 1.34 million active duty personnel in US.

Colombia Declares its Zika Epidemic Over

1. Colombia has declared its Zika epidemic is over.
2. But it has warned that the mosquito-borne virus would continue circulating on a smaller scale.
3. Colombia is the first country in the Americas to declare the end of the epidemic.
4. Colombia has been the second hardest-hit country by the disease after Brazil.
5. Brazil has been the country hardest hit by the virus,for which there is currently no vaccine.