MANTHAN Current Affairs Supplement – July, 2015...

MANTHAN Current Affairs Supplement – July, 2015

MANTHAN July, 2015 Page : 1

NATIONAL PM Narendra Modi to visit 5 central Asian nations after BRICS summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the five Central Asian countries Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in July is expected to give an impetus to various energy and mining projects including the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline.

Mr Modi will also travel to the Russian city of Ufa to attend the BRICS and SCO summits affording him two opportunities to meet the Central Asian leaders and discuss counter-terrorism cooperation.

Bangladesh to open mission in Assam

India has given clearance to Bangladesh to open its fifth diplomatic mission in India. The new Deputy High Commission will be opened in Guwahati, the capital of Assam.

The new mission in Guwahati will have consular jurisdiction over Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Bangladesh has missions already in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Agartala.

PM Narendra Modi to launch ‘Digital India Week'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the 'Digital India Week' in the national capital with a view to empower the people of the country through the Digital India Programme.

The Prime Minister is expected to launch the logo of the programme and also unveil various schemes like Digital Locker, e-education and e-health.

The government had last year approved the Digital India programme comprising various projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore to transform the country into a digitally empowered knowledge economy. The programme includes projects that aim to ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically and people get benefit of the latest information and communication technology.

The Ministry of Communications and IT is the nodal agency to implement the programme.

Green Climate Fund to become operational soon

The $100-billion Green Climate Fund will soon become operational in India and the process of accrediting organisations which can access the funds is going on, Dipak Dasgupta, Alternate Director (India), Green Climate Fund Board and Chair, Investment Committee, said. The fund would be made available to organisations such as NABARD that made development investment decisions and NGOs might not qualify.

IDFC appoints former CAG Vinod Rai as independent director

Infrastructure financing firm IDFC today appointed Vinod Rai, former Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), as independent director. The appointment has been made with immediate effect.

Digital India: A plethora of benefits

Digital India is a programme to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

By 2019, 2.5 lakh villages will have broadband connection, with added feature of phone connectivity. Over 2.5 lakh educational institutions including schools and universities will have wi-fi facility.



It is estimated that by 2019, about 1.7 crore young Indians will have proper training in IT, telecom and electronics. This will lead to 1.7 crore jobs directly and the resultant economic upsurge will add another 8.5 crore jobs.

The vision of Digital India is centered on three key areas. The first benefit will be the availability of utilities to citizens. Digital Infrastructure will deliver the services, like banking and access to a service center at the doorstep of citizens with the help of high speed internet. The second vision area focuses on governance and services. Across departments and places, the digital movement will bring everything on the screen of their devices, in a sense in their own hands.

The third vision will empower citizens digitally. The digital revolution will be of immense benefits to the citizens as digital resources, like documents will be easily available on cloud, making access easier and fast.

Literacy rate 71% in rural areas, 86% in urban areas: NSSO survey

A survey by National Sample Survey Office, NSSO, says that literacy rate in the rural areas was pegged at 71 per cent last year, compared to 86 per cent in the urban areas, while among the age group of seven years and above, male literacy rate was found higher than the female literacy rate.

Among the age group of seven year and above, the male literacy rate was registered at 83 per cent vis-a-vis the female literacy rate of 67 per cent. According to the survey, in the rural areas nearly 4.5 per cent of males and 2.2 per cent of females completed education level of graduation and above; while in urban areas 17 per cent of males and 13 per cent of females completed this level of education.

The details are part of a survey on ‘Social Consumption: Education’ during the National Sample Survey, January to June 2014, conducted by the NSSO under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

G.D. Birla award for Sanjeev Galande

Professor Sanjeev Galande has been chosen for the G.D. Birla Award for Scientific Research for 2014, the K.K. Birla Foundation announced. He is Professor and Team Leader at the Centre of Excellence in Epigenetics of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune.

The award, instituted in1991, seeks to recognize research by Indian scientists aged below 50 and living and working in India. It carries a cash prize of Rs. 2.5 lakh.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar launches new automataion software ARPAN 3.0 for Indian Army

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today launched new automation software, ARPAN 3.0 for the over 12 lakh soldiers of the Indian Army which would provide them easy access to their service records including pay and leave details and transfer and postings among others.

The roll out of ARPAN 3.0 (Army Record Office Process Automation 3.0), which coincides with the National Digital India week, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday, is aimed at digitisation of Indian Army's 45 Record Offices pan India in one year time.

ARPAN 3.0 has been developed jointly by the Army Software Development Centre (ASDC) and Tech Mahindra, using state-of-the-art web-based technology.

India launches online system for foreign employers

India has launched an online registration system for foreign employers who seek to recruit Indian workers, including nurses.



According to the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi, all the foreign employers need to register in the eMigrate system. The system makes it mandatory for the employer to fill in a registration application which will then be vetted by the Indian mission.

Four Indian-Americans honored as 'The Pride of America'

Four Indian-Americans are among 38 individuals being honored for having "helped advance and enlighten our society, culture, and economy" as "Great Immigrants: The Pride of America" by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

As a July 4th American independence day "Salute to Great Immigrants Who Help Make America Strong. The four Indian-Americans being honoured are: Preet Bharara US Attorney, Southern District of New York, Rakesh Khurana Danoff Dean of Harvard College and Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership and Development, Madhulika Sikka Vice President, Executive Editor, .Mic (India) and Abraham Verghese, Physician, Professor, Author (India).

Indian-American Darshan Jain among math, science teachers honoured by US President Barack Obama

Darshan Jain, an Indian American teacher is one of the 108 teachers named by President Barack Obama as recipients of the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

Jain, who has taught mathematics at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois for eight years where he currently serves as the director of mathematics, and other winners will receive a $10,000 award each from the National Science Foundation.

The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching is awarded annually to outstanding K-12 (kindergarten through 12th grades) science and mathematics teachers from across the country.

Cabinet Okays 21 infrastructure projects

The government has given approval for 21 major infrastructure projects under the District Flagship Infrastructure Project (DFIP). The DFIP has been envisaged to accelerate infrastructure development in the districts. A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, Secretary, Public Works Department, had issued orders for the 21 projects, including five flyovers, four bypasses, and a bridge.

Growing illiteracy in rural India

The Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC) report released 3 July, 2015 has found that 36 per cent of the 884 million people in rural India are illiterate. This is higher than the 32 per cent recorded by the Census of India 2011.

Of the 64 per cent literate rural Indians, a more than a fifth have not even completed primary school. The SECC also found that only 5.4 per cent of rural India has completed high school with a mere 3.4 per cent having graduated from college.

The performance within States is hugely varied, with an alarming 47.6 per cent of rural Rajasthan is remaining illiterate, compared to 9.3 per cent in Lakshadweep and 11.4 per cent in Kerala.

Delhi performs the best when it comes to percentage of its rural population that has completed graduate studies – at 9.6 percent, its performance is almost thrice as good as the national average.



Bihar wins national award for commendable work in health sector

Bihar has won appreciation in the country for works in the health sector under National Health Mission by winning first prize on four counts and second in another category.

The award was given to Bihar at 'National Summit on Best Practises and Innovations in Public Healthcare system in India' at Shimla in Himachal Pradesh

The Empowered Action Group awarded Bihar in the categories of infant survival, child survival, safe delivery, indoor and surgical services and second prize in OPD (Outdoor Patient Department)

The award was given by Union Health Minister J P Nadda.

Government launches learning portal for MGNREGA

Union Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh today launched an Online Learning Portal (OLP) for MGNREGA, and expressed confidence that it will help both the government officials and beneficiaries of the rural job flagship scheme.

The OLP will build capacities of technical functionaries and help in developing qualitative and sustainable assets.

All the field functionaries like Gram Rozgar Sevak, technical assistants, junior engineer, engineering consultants and others can take use this OLP.

Jeevan Pramaan: Digital life certificate

The Jeevan Pramaan scheme, an Aadhaar-based digital life certificate for pensioners, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi , is one more enabling mechanism for the benefit of the common man after the push towards self-certification.

The Jeevan pramaan scheme digitally provides proof of a pensioner's existence to authorities for continuity of pension every year. Instead of presenting himself physically or through a life certificate. In a big relief to over 10 million retired employees of government and public sector undertakings (PSUs), a pensioner can now digitally provide proof of his existence to authorities for continuity of pension every year instead of requiring to present himself physically or through a life certificate issued by specified authorities.

Army launched Operation Shiva to secure Amarnath Yatra

Army has launched “Operation Shiva” to ensure smooth conduct of about two-month long annual Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are being used for surveillance of the Yatra route and cave shrine and army has intensified search operations in forest areas along the yatra route. The annual yatra to Amarnath cave shrine in South Kashmir Himalayas will begin on July 2. The yatra will last for 59 days.

Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and MDG Assessment released

India has made “moderate” progress in reducing open defecation rates among its population and has succeeded in providing access to improved drinking water to more people in urban and rural areas, according to a UN report. The Joint Monitoring Programme report, Progress on sanitation and drinking water: 2015 update and MDG assessment, says worldwide, 1 in 3 people, or 2.4 billion, are still without sanitation facilities – including 946 million people who defecate in the open.



India is among the 16 countries that have reduced open defecation rates by at least 25 percentage points. In India’s case, there has been a reduction by 31 per cent in open defecation, a progress termed as “moderate” by the report. The Southern Asia region, where the number of open defecators is highest, has also made significant improvements. Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan have all achieved reductions of more than 30 percentage points since 1990.

Tripura has highest percentage of manual scavenger in India

Tripura has the highest percentage of manual scavenger with 2.50 per cent of its rural population still engaged in this menial work, according to the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011. Tripura (17,332) is followed by Mizoram with 0.92 per cent of population still pursuing manual scavenging.

As far as percentage of legally released bonded labour is concerned, the all India average is 0.12 per cent or 2.06 lakh.

Tripura again has the highest percentage of legally released bonded labour with 7.31 per cent or 50,716. This is followed by Arunachal Pradesh with 0.7 per cent.

Cellphones outnumber landlines in rural India

According to the Socio Economic and Caste Census, 2011, nearly 28 per cent of rural households in India still do not have access to a phone, whether landline or mobile. Only 11 per cent of these households have a refrigerator.

The census, released by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh, finds that the number of mobile-phone connections far exceeds that of landlines in rural India. 68 per cent of households own only a mobile phone, one per cent owns only a landline phone, and 2.7 per cent own both.

The census provides an insight into transport facilities in villages, showing that only 20.6 per cent of households own “motorised two/three/four-wheelers or motorised fishing boats requiring registration”.

Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh perform similar when it comes to rural consumption of items measured in the census. A whopping 71 per cent of Chhattisgarh’s rural population does not have a phone. This number is 65.3 per cent for Odisha and 51.9 per cent for Madhya Pradesh.

The highest-paid members in an overwhelming 90.8 per cent of rural households in Chhattisgarh earn less than Rs. 5,000 a month. This proportion is 87.8 per cent in Odisha and 83.5 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, against the national average of 74.5 per cent.

The census found that only 3.62 per cent of rural households across the country have a Kisan Credit Card with a credit limit of Rs. 50,000 or more.

UGC grants heritage status to 19 colleges

With an aim of conserving college campuses which are more than 100 years old, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has granted "heritage" status to 19 institutions across the country and has approved financial assistance for their improvement and upgradation.

The colleges which have been granted the status include St.Xavier's College, Mumbai; CMS College Kottayam; St Joseph College, Trichy; Khalsa College, Amritsar; St Bede's College, Shimla, Christ Church College in Kanpur, Old Agra College, Agra; Meerut College, Meerut and Langat Singh College in Bihar's Muzaffarpur.



Cotton College of Guwahati has received maximum grants of Rs 4.35 crore for conservation of its heritage building.

Former Chief Justice of India Y K Sabharwal passed away

Former Chief Justice of India Y K Sabharwal passed away at the age of 73. He had suffered a brain stroke in 2014 and was not keeping well since.

As a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Sabharwal delivered several important judgments dealing with constitutional matters, including the verdict in January 2006 that held the dissolution of Bihar Assembly as illegal and unconstitutional. Justice Sabharwal also headed a bench monitoring river inter-linking projects in the country.

Uttar Pradesh first to have vehicle tracking system

Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) has become the first State transport corporation to have a vehicle tracking system for inter-city buses, which has led to a reduction in accidents and deaths as drivers are wary of crossing the speed limits.

Goa to host the XIIth International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences (ISAES)

Goa will host the XIIth International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences (ISAES), from July 13 to 17.

Organised by National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India the five-day long symposium will be inaugurated by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences on July 12 at a resort near here. Prof. Jeronimo Lopez-Martinez, President, Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), will be present as the guest of honour.

The international symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences (ISAES) is a SCAR-initiative aimed at showcasing Antarctic geoscience research, taking stock of the accomplishments of the international fraternity and providing guidance for future studies.

The first ISAES was organised way back in 1963 at Cape Town, and the last one (11th) at Edinburgh, with the Symposium traversing through Oslo, Madison, Adelaide, Cambridge, Tokyo, Siena, Wellington, Potsdam and Santa Barbara. In its 50-year history, Japan has been the only Asian country to hold it with India being bestowed the honor to host it in 2015.

Unwed mother can be sole guardian: SC

Upholding the right of an unwed mother to apply for sole guardianship over her minor son without prior consent of the child’s absentee biological father, the Supreme Court said that women are increasingly choosing to raise their children alone, and there was no need to thrust an uncaring father on a child.

The judgment, authored by Justice Sen, observed that a man who has chosen to forsake his duties and responsibilities is not a necessary constituent for the well-being of the child.

Meghalaya partners Microsoft to launch 'smart classrooms'

The government of Meghalaya has entered into collaboration with Microsoft India to launch 'Smart Classroom' programme in the state.

The programme would "effectively implement technology in education and creating an environment where students and teachers communicate, collaborate, create, access and consume content using Microsoft technology".



The state also plans to launch additional 'digital classrooms' programme which will be using Windows based devices. Additionally, the state will also be conducting a series of digital awareness and literacy events with Ramakrishna Mission over the course of the next few days to mark the 'Digital India Week'.

Only 0.41 per cent of Indians seek information under RTI Act: Study

India enacted the Right to Information Act a decade ago, but not even 1 per cent of the country's population exercises its power under the transparency law. A nationwide study by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has revealed that only 0.37-0.41 per cent of India's population sought information under the RTI Act in 2014.

As per the first of the annual survey on the number of citizens using their right to know, CHRI found that as a proportion of the electorate, people aged 18 years and above, this percentage works to 0.5-0.6 per cent of the population.

The study revealed that only Chhattisgarh among states captured the urban-rural break-up of RTI applicants. Less than a fifth of the applicants (19.85 per cent) were living in villages in the state.

Only two states (Chhattisgarh and Nagaland) information commissions have captured gender break-up of RTI applicants.

Chhattisgarh, the only state which has captured the indicative trend, shows that RTI applicants belonging to Scheduled Castes nearly doubled in a year, with 6.37 per cent of the applicants belonging to Scheduled Castes. Similarly, the percentage of RTI applicants from Scheduled Tribes grew to 5.5 per cent in 2014.

Microsoft to develop digital villages, cyber-security centre in Maharashtra

Software major Microsoft has agreed to support 'digital villages' in Maharashtra and develop a 'smart MIDC' apart from setting up a cyber-security centre in Pune.

The software major also agreed to adopt a village in Melghat, a tribal area, for providing 'tertiary health services'.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and appreciated the contribution of data centres for 'Make in Maharashtra' initiative.

Over 50% of children under five stunted in UP

Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Tripura are the only States which have reduced the proportion of underweight adolescent girls according to the findings of the Rapid Survey on Children (RSOC), a nation-wide sample survey of over one lakh households conducted by the UNICEF.

Uttar Pradesh still has the highest levels of child stunting, with over 50 per cent of the children under the age of five underdeveloped, meaning that their height is more than two standard deviations less than the expected height for their age for that population.

Kerala remains the best performing State in the number of child stunting cases, while Manipur and Mizoram have the lowest numbers of underweight children.

The RSOC findings show that at the national level, stunting is higher in rural areas (41.7 per cent) than in urban areas (32.1 per cent), as is the case for underweight children.



India on track in cutting poverty: MDG report

India has halved its incidence of extreme poverty, from 49.4% in 1994 to 24.7% in 2011 ahead of the deadline of 2015 set by the United Nations, shows the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Report 2015.

The report set the limit for extreme poverty as those living on $1.25 or less a day. However, this reduction in poverty is still less than that achieved by several of India’s poorer neighbours. Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh have each outstripped India in poverty reduction over comparable time periods.

India has already achieved 11 out of 22 parameters in the report spanning issues like education, poverty, health, and education and is on track to achieve one more by the end of 2015.

MNREGA in world's largest public works scheme: World Bank

India's rural employment guarantee programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA), has been ranked as the world's largest public works one, providing social security net to almost 15 per cent of the country's population, the World Bank has said.

India's mid-day meal scheme has been classified as biggest school feeding programme, benefitting 105 million beneficiaries.

The top honours for public works programme went to MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act) with 182 million beneficiaries or 15 per cent of India's population.

The World Bank ranked the Janani Suraksha Yojna with 78 million beneficiaries as the top-most social security programme with conditional cash transfers.

Also, it ranked the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme as the second-largest unconditional cash transfer social security progamme in the world.

Government increases daily minimum wage to Rs 160 per day

The government has increased minimum wage across the country to Rs 160 a day from Rs 137 with effect from 1 July, 2015. It has raised the threshold after two years on the basis of average increase in the consumer price index for industrial workers during this period.

Accordingly, the NFLMW (national floor level minimum wage) has been revised upwards from existing Rs 137 to Rs 160 per day with effect from July 1, 2015

NFLMW is a non-statutory measure and after every revision states are persuaded to fix minimum wages such that in none of the scheduled employments the minimum wage is less than NFLMW. The list of scheduled employment under the Minimum Wage Act, 1948, differs from state to state and covers a wide spectrum of employment creating sectors including industry, construction, agriculture and services sector.

Telangana government, ICRISAT ink MoU to promote IT-based information for farmers

The Telangana government and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) joined hands to implement Information and Communication Technology-based knowledge sharing platforms and other agricultural innovation initiatives to improve productivity and profitability of small-holder farmers.

'Prerna Sthal' dedicated to nation at Hussainiwala

The Army authorities dedicated the monument 'Prerna Sthal' in the midst of bugle notes of the 'Last Post' played from the rooftop of the historical Hussainiwala railway station.



'Prerna Sthal' has seven pillars made of sandstone with copper finish metallic inscription plaques. The central pillar, relatively larger in size, carries a portrait of Bhagat Singh. The first of the six smaller ancillary pillars has been scripted with motivational verses to honour Bhagat Singh and the remaining five pillars narrate brief of various battles fought in Hussainiwala, names of martyrs, and details of gallantry awards.

Uttarakhand gets early quake warning system

For the first time in India, a system to detect earthquakes and disseminate warnings has been installed in Uttarakhand, where researchers have predicted an earthquake of magnitude 8 or greater. It will issue warnings 1-40 seconds before earthquakes of magnitude 5 occur.

The system, made by Space Dynamics, an Italian firm, has already been installed in Japan, Italy and the U.S. The first system has been installed in Dehradun, and the second will be established at Pithoragarh in the Kumaon region.

Rashtriya Avishkar mission to inculcate scientific temper among children launched

Former President A P J Abdul Kalam Launched the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan (RAA). The primary aim of RAA, developed by HRD ministry, is to inculcate a spirit of inquiry, creativity and love for science and mathematics in school children.

Under RAA government schools will be mentored by institutes like IITs/ IIMs/ IISERs and other central universities and reputed organizations through innovative programmes, student exchanges, demonstrations, student visits, etc to develop a sense of passion towards learning of science and mathematics.

India’s population crosses 127-crore mark

On the World Population Day on 11th July, 2015, India recorded a population of 127,42,39,769, which is growing at a rate of 1.6 per cent a year, and could make the country the most populous in the world by 2050.

At 5 p.m. on Saturday, the number of Indians hit 127,42,39,769, and is 17.25 per cent of the global population, as per Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh or National Population Stabilisation Fund (NPSF), an autonomous body under the Union Health Ministry which has raised concerns about over-population related problems, if the rate persists.

The population of India, at 1.21 billion as per the 2011 Census, is almost equal to the combined population of the U.S., Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan put together.

Nabard plans Rs 30,000 crore credits to farmers for irrigation

The state-run National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has set a target of providing Rs 30,000 crore as credit to farmers for irrigation over the next three years.

Nabard Chairman and Managing Director Harsh Kumar Bhanwala said that this funding will be in addition to the government's recent announcement of providing Rs 50,000 crore of loans to farmers over the next five years under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY).

India shuns China, allows Japan in naval drill

India has now included Japan for its forthcoming Malabar naval exercise with the US in the Bay of Bengal in October, 2015.

Just before the Malabar drill, India and Australia will also hold their first-ever bilateral naval exercise off Vizag in the Bay of Bengal from September 11 to 21, 2015. The exercise will see Australia participate with frigate



HMAS Arunta, tanker HMAS Sirius, submarine HMAS Sheehan, with India fielding a destroyer, a frigate and a tanker, apart from aircraft and helicopters.

Landlessness key to rural deprivation: Census

Landlessness and dependence on manual casual labour for a livelihood are key deprivations facing rural families, socio-economic census figures suggest.

The rural census mapped deprivation on the basis of seven indicators households with kuchha house; without adult member in working age; headed by a woman and without an adult male in working age; with disabled member and without able-bodied adult; of SC/STs; without literate adults over 25 years; and landless engaged in manual labour.

Unravelling the Ayodhya Korea link

India has begun the work of tracing its “shared heritage” with Korea using the legendary Queen Suriratna, a princess from Ayodhya who travelled to the country to marry King Kim Suro in 48 AD, as a pivot.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Seoul, it was announced that India and Korea will strengthen their historic connection by enhancing linkages of Korean people with Ayodhya. A decision was also taken to upgrade the monument for Queen Suriratna, also know as Hur Hwang-ok, in Ayodhya as a joint project between the two countries.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in collaboration with the India International Centre (IIC) will initiate a two-day international conference, which will include delegates from Korea, to discuss the aspects of cultural links between the two countries, focusing on the legend of the Queen.

Lt Gen Man Mohan Singh Rai appointed as new Vice-Chief of Army

Lt Gen Man Mohan Singh Rai has been appointed as the next Vice-Chief of the Indian Army.

Rai, at present the Eastern Army Commander, will replace Lt Gen Philip Campose, who superannuates on July 31, 2015.

Krishnapatnam Port in AP receives Golden Peacock award for environment management

Krishnapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh has received the Golden Peacock environment management award for its initiatives and achievements in the field of environment. The award was presented by Union Minister of State for Environment Prakash Javadekar to C Sasidhar, Managing Director (Krishnapatnam Port) on Saturday at the 17th World Congress on Environment Management held in New Delhi.

Haryana starts state-wide birth defect surveillance

Haryana government has initiated state-wide birth defect surveillance in collaboration with World Health Organisation (WHO) and Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

The surveillance program aims at collecting uniform data and is the first step in figuring out a primary prevention for congenital birth defects.

In Haryana, birth defect data is being captured from various sources like anemia tracking module, home based post natal care, Special New-born Care Units and about 1% new-born were admitted or diagnosed with birth defects.



PM Modi to launch National Skill Mission to create large skilled workforce

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the National Skill Mission in an effort to create a large pool of skilled workforce required to sustain his ambitious 'Make in India' initiative.

The National Skill Mission, which is being launched on International Skill Day, is aimed at roping in 24 lakh youth, across India, over the next one year.

A 'Skill Loan' initiative will also be introduced to make loans from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh available to more than 34 lakh youth, who seek to attend skill development programmes, over the next five years.

Government's 'Make in India' initiative gets excellence award

The 'Make in India' initiative of the government received '2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Development Innovation: Policy and Program Implementation Excellence Award' from US-based consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

The 'Make in India' initiative was launched in September last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make the country a manufacturing hub of the world.

India launches mission to skill 400 million by 2022

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched another ambitious scheme the National Skill Development Mission to train 400 million Indians by 2022.

Prime Minister said while launching Skill India campaign that if China is the world’s manufacturing capital, India will soon become the world’s human resource capital.

The government also launched the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), skill loan scheme and the national policy for skill development and entrepreneurship 2015 on the World Youth Skill Day. Under the skill loan scheme, youth can avail credit between Rs 5,000 and Rs 150,000 to attend skill-related training programme.

Agri Ministry launches 3 portals

The Centre launched three new websites for farmers aimed at making organic farming certification, fertiliser quality checks and disbursal of soil health cards easier. The portals, developed by National Informatics Centre, are part of the existing schemes.

The ‘Participatory Guarantee System’ portal will help small and marginal farmers engaged in organic farming to secure certification after checks for compliance to standards are carried out.

The ‘Soil Health Card’ portal has been developed to register soil samples and record tests results along with fertiliser recommendations to create a national database on soil health for future use in research.

The ‘Fertiliser Quality Control System’ portal will collate results of drawn samples of imported fertilisers helping both consumers and importers with analysis reports.

Varanasi chosen as 'city of music' by UNESCO

The city of Varanasi has been chosen in the music category under UNESCO’s “Field of Excellence” plan. The fields of excellence are classified into categories of literature, film, music, craft and folk art, design, media arts and gastronomy.



Nine cities — Glasgow in the UK, Hanover and Mannheim in Germany, Ghent in Belgium, Hamamatsu in Japan, Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo, Bogota in Columbia, Seville in Spain and Bologna in Italy are a part of UNESCO "Cities of Music".

Music was introduced in 2006 as the fifth cultural category in the Creative Cities Network of the world body.

IIT Bombay, Nehru Science Centre launches ‘Internet for All’ Mobile Science Exhibition

Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai has joined hands with Techfest, IIT Bombay to launch a pilot project “Internet for All” in its Mobile Science Exhibition Bus, under the aegis of ‘Digital India’ campaign.

The aim of the MSE is primarily to take Science to the door steps of the rural school children for enhancing the understanding of Science among rural students.

Government approves transit oriented development plan for Delhi

To address the issues of pollution, congestion and lack of housing for the poor and middle class, the union government approved the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy for Delhi.

Under the TOD policy, the floor area ratio for constructions around mass rapid transit systems (MRTs) like the Metro has been doubled. TOD policy will also help to address the issues of traffic congestion and shortage of housing in Delhi and allow more vertical constructions.

World Bank to provide $250-mn for AP project

The Government of India, Andhra Pradesh and the World Bank today signed a $250-million credit agreement for the Andhra Pradesh Disaster Recovery Project. The project seeks to restore, improve and enhance the resilience of public services and livelihoods of communities affected by Hudhud cyclone in Andhra Pradesh.

In October 2014, a cyclonic storm ‘Hudhud’ made landfall on Andhra Pradesh coast near Visakhapatnam causing huge loss. The project will specifically benefit over 13 million people in the four severely affected districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari.

The credit is from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, and has a maturity of 25 years, including a 5-year grace period.

DoT’s Net Neutrality report

DoT committee chaired by A.K. Bhargava, tasked with making recommendations on how India should treat net neutrality and regulates the internet, has passed the buck on contentious issues to the telecom regulator, while appearing to support net neutrality.

The Net Neutrality Committee has recommended that user rights on the Internet need to be ensured so that Telecom Service Providers/Internet Service Providers (TSPs/ISPs) do not restrict the ability of the user to send, receive, display, use, post any legal content, application or service on the Internet, or restrict any kind of lawful Internet activity or use.

Govt to launch eight postal ATMs in North East

Department of Posts will soon launch eight ATMs in the North Eastern region. Chief Post Master General of North East circle, Smita Kumari said in Shillong that 15 more locations are under the process of installation of ATMs. India Post has taken up modernization plan under which computerization of all post offices in the country is taking place.



Department of Posts has a network of around 1.55 lakh post offices out of which 2,920 are in the North East circle. Around seven offices in the North East circle have been covered under core banking.

Kerala Tourism's Muziris Heritage Project wins award

Kerala Tourism has bagged this year's prestigious Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award for its Muziris Heritage Project. This award is recognition of the Muziris project, aimed at restoring the historical and cultural significance of the ancient town that stretches across North Paravur in Ernakulam to Kodungalloor in Thrissur.

The award, sponsored by the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO), was bestowed on the Muziris Heritage Project for its conservational aspect, uniqueness and impact on local community.

Founded in 1951, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is a not-for profit association that is internationally acclaimed for acting as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia-Pacific region.

Century's biggest Jagannath Rath Yatra begins in Puri

Century's biggest Rath Yatra began in Puri, about 67 km from state capital Bhubaneshwar. The event, this time, is coinciding with the Navakalevar (re-birth ceremony) of the 12th century Puri Jagannath temple deities. Nabakalebara, periodical renewal of wooden images of all three dieties adds significance to Rath Yatra as the chariots carry the new idols carved out of sacred woods, which are identified after elaborate rituals.

Puri’s Rath Yatra is an annual celebration, marking the annual journey of the deities from the 12th century Jagannath Temple in the chariots to the temple of Devi Gundicha (their aunt). The celebration ends nine days later with Bahuda Yatra (return journey to their temple).

Poor connectivity, lack of security behind poor economic growth of NE: Assocham

The economic growth rate of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur had recorded a rate lower than that of the Northeastern region’s average rate of growth, with a recent report by Assocham pointing out this disparity and blaming lack of speedy connectivity as well as safe and secure investment environment in the region.

“Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur’s economic growth rate is recorded at a rate that is lower than the Northeast region’s average growth rate.

The economic growth performance of the region as a whole recorded 5.9 per cent between 2004-15 and 2013-14.

Maharashtra records most farmer suicides

With 2,568 farmers’ suicides during 2014, Maharashtra recorded the highest number in the country. The data released by the National Crime Records Bureau also show that Chhattisgarh is among the top four States in farmers’ suicides.

According to the data, 443 farmers committed suicide in Chhattisgarh during 2014, making it the State with the fourth highest number after Maharashtra, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh.

In a first, China to participate in Indian International Fleet Review

China has confirmed its participation in the Indian International Fleet Review (IFR) in Visakhapatnam in February 2016. This is the first time the Chinese Navy will take part in the event.



The development comes at a time of growing competition between the two countries for strategic space in the Indian Ocean with the Chinese Navy’s increasing forays into the region.

The two sides will exchange visits of naval ships and hold PASSEX (passing exercises) and SAR (search and rescue) exercises.

Double digit growth in tourist arrivals

Tourist arrivals in India registered a double-digit growth in 2014 over the previous year, show Union Tourism Ministry data.

While the number of domestic tourists grew 12 per cent against 9.59 per cent in 2013, the number of foreign visitors rose by 13.12 per cent against 9.24 per cent the previous year.

Tamil Nadu remained the favourite destination, receiving the highest number of 32.76 crore domestic visitors and 46.6 lakh foreign visitors.

Israel offers to help clean Ganga

Israel, one of India’s biggest defence partners, wants to offer its expertise in water management and help the government with its ambitious Ganga cleaning project.

India and Israel have already signed agreements for agriculture partnership and 28 centres of excellence have been set up in Haryana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. These centres offer training to agriculturists on how to increase their produce and on effective means of irrigation.

Rural women beat urban counterparts to use social security schemes

According to the latest gross enrolment data of three social security schemes, the number of rural female participants is higher than urban females.

As on July 16, over 1.98 crore rural women got enrolled in three schemes, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana or PMJJBY (for life insurance), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana or PMSBY (for accidental insurance cover) and Atal Pension Yojana or APY (pension scheme) — while the number of urban women enrolled in these was over 1.93 crore.

Surat first city to launch picture intelligence unit

Surat became the first city of the country to launch a picture intelligence unit, comprising real time facial recognition, and number plate recognition and vehicle speed violation system. The system will help to curb crime in the city as it will send an alert with a captured picture of an offender and number plate of his vehicle to a commanding control room at the city police commissioner's office and then the local police station will be informed.

The project has been initiated on public private partnership (PPP) model with a city-based NGO Surat Traffic Education Trust.

UP, TN, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan accounted for over 40% road fatalities in 2014

The top five states on the list of road accident fatalities -Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan -accounted for over 40 per cent of the deaths in 2014.

UP topped the list with 16,284 deaths, but Tamil Nadu with over 15,000 lives lost was much worse given its relatively smaller size. Learning from global practices, this is for the first time crashes and deaths have been



analyzed under 13 categories -both state-wise and citywise -such as the causes of crashes, place of occurrence and culpability.

Narendra Modi launches National Career Service portal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National Career Counseling Portal as part of an endeavor to modernize all government-run employment exchanges, at the 46th session of Indian Labour Conference.

The facility, which is part of the government’s focus on skilling and employment generation aims to create a direct market place for workers and employers.

The centralized portal will be supported by a web of interconnected Career Centres where prospective candidates can come for counseling free of cost from government certified counselors and psychologists.

Indigenous Visibility Measuring System – Drishti Installed at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi

Sophisticated instruments, indigenously designed and developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL), Bengaluru called as – DRISHTI, have now been made fully operational at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi.

They are used for reporting the runway visual range, which is a critical parameter for safe landing and take-off of aircraft in poor visibility conditions (<25 to >2000meters).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch 4 ICAR schemes

To take research innovation to farm fields, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch four new schemes at the 87th foundation day of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to be held at Patna on July 25, 2015.

The new schemes, Farmer First, Student Ready, ARYA and Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav (My village, My Pride) will be implemented by the ICAR.

For the first time, the foundation day of the ICAR is being organised outside New Delhi. The importance of Bihar is more as India's first Agriculture Research and Education Institute (IARI) was established in Bihar nearly 110 years ago at Pusa, Samastipur.

New Delhi-headquartered ICAR is the largest public sector national agriculture system in the world. It has 100 institutes under its charge, of which four are deemed universities.

Nabard launches initiative to digitise SHGs

Nabard has launched a project “Eshakti” for digitisation of all SHGs (Self Help Groups) in the country.

R Amalorpavanathan, Deputy Managing Director, Nabard said that the bank has, in the pilot phase, taken up two districts, Dhule in Maharashtra and Ramgarh in Jharkhand for digitisation of SHG data.

Government gives final approval to set up 13 mega food parks

The government has given final approval to 13 proposals for setting up of mega food parks in various parts of the country including rural areas during the current Five Year Plan period.

The states where these mega food parks will come up are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand (one each) and Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra (two each).



Government launched 'Surakshit Khadya Abhiyan'

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas, launched a countrywide campaign 'Surakshit Khadya Abhiyan', to create mass awareness and capacity building for safe and hygienic food.

The campaign planned by CII and its partners including Consumer Organization VOICE, and National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), is an effort towards building a culture of food safety in the country.

‘Bengal records highest rate of rise in suicides’

Among the States, which contribute to majority of incidents of suicides in the country rate of increase in suicide in West Bengal, has been the highest in the country.

Rate of suicides per lakh population in West Bengal was 15.5 per cent, while the national average was 10.6 per cent in 2014. During the same year Maharashtra recorded 16,307 suicides (12.4 percent of total suicides in the country) and Tamil Nadu recorded 16,122 (12.2 percent of total suicides in the country).

While States like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have largely reduced the percentage contribution to suicides in the country, the same has increased in West Bengal.

PM Narendra Modi to inaugurate 'MPs Ki Paathshala' in Parliament house

Modi will inaugurate 'MPs Ki Paathshala' in Parliament on 23rd July, 2015 where all Lok Sabha members will be educated about the critical issues facing the country. Organized by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan under Speaker Research Initiative, a series of workshops are planned to educate the MPs so that they can participate in debates and make "coherent" contribution.

It will be chaired by Sachin Chaturvedi, DG at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS).

Highest number of malnourished children in Madhya Pradesh: Government

Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of malnourished children in the country with 74.1 per cent of those under the age of five suffering from anaemia and 60 per cent from malnutrition.

The prevalence of underweight children under five years of age in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan is 37 per cent, 42.2 per cent, 55.9 per cent, 39.9 per cent respectively.

According to the data of National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) 2005-06, 42.5 per cent of the country's children under the age of five are malnourished and 69.5 per cent are anaemic.

Nutritional anaemia is the most common type of anaemia among children and mainly includes iron, folate and Vitamin B-12 deficiencies.

R.K. Pachauri removed as TERI head

Nobel laureate and climate scientist R.K. Pachauri was removed as the Director-General of TERI by its governing council. Accused of sexual harassment by a junior colleague in February this year, Mr. Pachauri was found guilty of misconduct by the organisation’s Internal Complaints Committee.

The top decision-making body named Ajay Mathur, currently the Director-General of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency of the Central Government, as its new Director-General.



Only 9 states eligible for performance grants of ULBs

Only nine of 29 states in the country were found eligible for getting performance grants of urban local bodies during 2014-15.

The states which met the criteria and got performance grant of urban local bodies (ULBs) are - Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Haryana, Chattisgarh and Mizoram.

As per the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission, these nine states were released performance grant of Rs 457.91 crore.

National Broadcasting Day observed across the country

National Broadcasting day was observed on 23rd July, 2015. On this day in 1927, Indian Broadcasting Company began organized radio broadcasting from Bombay station.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore highlighted the significant role of prasar Bharti in taking news of public interest to the length and breadth of the country.

AIR is one of the largest public broadcasting organisations in the world. It is largest in terms of the spectrum of socio-economic, the number of languages of broadcasts and cultural diversity it serves.

IRCTC sign MoU with UTDB to promote tourism in Uttarakhand

IRCTC has signed a MoU with Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB) for promotion of tourism in the hilly state, especially the launch of pilgrim packages for the next year's Ardh Kumbh Mela at Haridwar and projecting Uttarakhand as a Yoga destination.

The MoU would facilitate launch of a string of initiatives to jointly promote tourism in Uttarakhand.

Another area of cooperation is promotion of wildlife tours for the Jim Corbett National Park and Rajaji National Park.

Maharashtra cabinet approves Shyama prasad Mukherjee Jan Van Vikas Scheme

Maharashtra Cabinet approved Shyama prasad Mukherjee Jan Van Vikas Scheme, aimed at comprehensive development of villages in the buffer zones of tiger reserves and around them. Its objectives are to reduce the man-animal conflict and achieve sustainable development of these villages.

The scheme will be launched on project basis from 2015-16 to 2019-2020.

Two members of Anglo-Indian Community nominated to Lok Sabha

The President has nominated Prof. Richard Hay and Mr. George Baker as members of the Anglo-Indian Community to the Lok Sabha.

Mr Baker, who has acted in several Assamese and Bengali movies since 1970s, had joined BJP in 2014 and unsuccessfully contested on a party ticket from Howrah in West Bengal. Baker's most notable film was 'Chameli Memsaab' (Assamese and Bengali) which won national film award in 1975.

Professor Hay teaches economics in various academic institutes in India as well as abroad.



Indo-EU workshop on marine ecosystem in Kochi

To popularize scientific works and to explore the possibilities for collaboration, an Indo-European Union workshop on marine ecosystem and climate in India will be held in Kochi.

The workshop is aimed at commercializing and disseminating the knowledge and information based on the current status of scientific works conducted in the country and to initiate a tie-up between India and the European Union on protecting marine ecosystem.

Prime Minister launched the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) in Patna

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) in Patna on 25th July, 2015.

The DDUGJY is one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Power and will facilitate 24x7 supply of power.

The major components of the scheme are feeder separation; strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution network; metering at all levels (input points, feeders and distribution transformers); micro grid and off grid distribution network and rural electrification- already sanctioned projects under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) to be completed.

Central Government Constitutes a Committee to Suggest Measures for Selection of the Most Meritorious to Teaching Profession

The Central Government and the UGC have constituted a Committee, chaired by Prof. Arun Nigavekar, former Chairman, UGC to give recommendations on various provisions for regulating recruitment of teachers and academic staff in universities and colleges and their career advancement in UGC funded institutions.

The Committee has been asked to submit its report within a period of two months from the date of its constitution i.e. 24th July, 2015.

Govt to take action on Shah Panel report on MAT soon: finance ministry

The panel, headed by Law Commission chairman AP Shah, included former chief economic advisor Ashok Lahiri and Chartered Accountant Girish Ahuja as other two members have submitted it’s a 66-page report to Finance Ministry.

The government had in May appointed the Shah Committee to examine the matter relating to levy of MAT on FIIs prior to April 2015. The committee looked into all related legal provisions, judicial, quasi-judicial pronouncements and other relevant aspects.

Union Government, 3 states to start artificial breeding of Great Indian Bustard

Under an integrated collaborative effort, the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) along with the state governments of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra will soon undertake an artificial breeding programme for the Great Indian Bustard (GIB), one of the critically endangered flying bird species in the world, to boost the population of the species.

GIB is listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of India, 1972, and its global trade is prohibited.

Concerned over its rapidly deteriorating population, the Union government had prepared a recovery programme in 2012, for three species of bustard - Great Indian Bustard, Bengal Florican and Lesser Florican.



Japanese Encephalitis outbreak in Assam

Shri J P Nadda, Minister of Health and Family Welfare held a review meeting with senior officials of Health Ministry in the backdrop of recent outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in Assam.

365 JE positive cases and 66 deaths due to JE have been reported from the State so far. More number of deaths has been reported from the upper Assam districts namely Sivasagar (9), Dibrugarh (7), Jorhat (7) and Golaghat (4).

Japanese encephalitis is a disease caused by the mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus. Domestic pigs and wild birds (especially herons) are reservoirs of the virus; transmission to humans may cause severe symptoms.

Abdul Kalam, ‘People’s President’, passes away

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, country's 11th President,widely acclaimed as the “people’s president”, Bharat Ratna and far-sighted architect of India's space and missile programmes , passed away after collapsing on stage during a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management in Shillong. He was 83.

From successfully launching satellites through Satellite Launch Vehicles, to the Pokhran-2 nuclear tests in 1998, Kalam was wedded to self-reliance in technology. A versatile person, his passion was not limited to science alone. He was a poet, played the veena and was conversant with both the Quran as well as the Bhagavad Gita.

He has authored many books and Wings of Fire has been translated into Chinese as well.

President Pranab Mukherjee to grace Mohun Bagan's 125th year celebration

President Pranab Mukherjee will be the chief guest for city football giant Mohun Bagan's 125th year celebrations which will be held on August 22, 2015.

The club was supposed to celebrate the annual day on July 29 as in earlier years as a mark of respect for the team which won the IFA shield against East Yorkshire Regiment on this very day in 1911.

The president will felicitate the Mohun Bagan team who clinched the I-League this year besides awarding "Mohun Bagan Ratna" to Arumay Naigam and Karuna Shankar Bhattacharya.

Gujarat becomes first state to ink mandatory voting rule

The Gujarat government issued a notification making voting in local body elections compulsory under the controversial Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment), Act 2009 (2014).

Following this notification, any citizen abstaining from voting in civic elections will be penalized. The punishment could be monetary fine or non-eligibility for certain civic incentives.

Asian Development Bank, Centre ink $300 million loan pact for National Urban Health Mission

Manila-headquartered Asian Development Bank (ADB) inked USD 300 million loan pact with the government to support the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM).

The NUHM is aimed at improving health status of the country's urban population.

The loan will be ADB's first health project in India. The loan from the ADB's Ordinary Capital Resources has a 20-year, term including a grace period of five years, and an interest rate to be determined in accordance with ADB's LIBOR-based lending facility.



India, Slovak Republic ink agreement for standards formulation

India and Slovak Republic signed an agreement to facilitate cooperation and exchange of information about standards formulation, testing facilities and third party product certification, among others.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Slovak Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing (SOSMT)

BIS is the national standards body of India engaged in harmonious development of activities of standardization, marking, and quality certification of goods and for matters connected there with.

SOSMT is the central state administration body for technical standardization, metrology and quality and conformity assessment in Slovak Republic.

Tripura: pension for transgender launched

The Tripura government has introduced a pension scheme for transgenders. Monthly pension up to Rs. 500 would be given to transgenders. The Council of Ministers also decided to a pay a monthly pension to women domestic workers and patients suffering from leprosy and AIDS.

Maharashtra FDA chief Harshadeep Kamble to head top panel on online pharmacies

The central government has formed a sub-committee on issues related to online pharmacies under the chairmanship of Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Harshadeep Kamble.

The sub-committee, is expected to come up with a set of norms shortly, was formed by Drugs Controller General of India to assess feasibility of online pharmacies, which was a result of deliberations at recently concluded 48th Drugs Consultative Committee meeting in Delhi.

E-tourist visa to Chinese nationals from July 30, 2015

As promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, e-tourist visa facility will be rolled out to Chinese nationals beginning July 30, 2015.

Along with the citizens of China, the e-tourist visa facility will also be offered to the nationals of Hong Kong and Macao.

Under the e-visa scheme, an applicant receives an email authorising him or her to travel to India after it is approved and he or she can travel with a print-out of this authorisation. On arrival, the visitor has to present the authorisation to the immigration authorities who would then stamp the entry into the country.

Maharashtra’s first IIM unveiled in Nagpur

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has inaugurated new Indian Institutes of Management in Nagpur. The proposal of setting up of six IIMs was made by Narendra Modi government last year. It is Maharashtra’s first IIM and is being mentored by IIM Ahmedabad.

Cabinet approves new Consumer Protection Bill

The Cabinet approved a new Consumer Protection Bill 2015 that seeks to replace a 29-year-old law and proposes to set up a regulatory authority which will have powers to recall products and initiate class class suit against defaulting companies, including e-tailers. The proposed new law assumes importance as there is growing concern over safety of consumer products and services especially after the Maggi controversy. The new bill, approved by the Cabinet and likely to be introduced in the ongoing session of Parliament, provides for



a comprehensive framework for protection of consumer interest and will replace the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

Whistleblower, activist wins Magsaysay Award

Whistleblower officer Sanjeev Chaturvedi and human rights activist Anshu Gupta are among the five winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Award this year. Mr. Chaturvedi had been selected for “his exemplary integrity, courage and tenacity in uncompromisingly exposing and painstakingly investigating corruption in public office, and his resolute crafting of program and system improvements to ensure that government honourably serves the people of India.”

Anshu Gupta, founder of the non-governmental organisation Goonj, was being recognised for “his creative vision in transforming the culture of giving in India, his enterprising leadership in treating cloth as a sustainable development resource for the poor, and in reminding the world that true giving always respects and preserves human dignity.”

Andhra Pradesh to create 'equipment bank' in infrastructure push

The Andhra Pradesh government decided to create 'an equipment bank' designed to supply equipment for all works. The Andhra Pradesh government decided to create 'an equipment bank' designed to supply equipment for all works. SREI Infra is likely to provide support to the state in this regard and help it in financing too.

In 7 yrs, India will surpass China in population: UN

India is expected to surpass China to become the world's most populous nation by 2022.China and India remain the two largest countries in the world, each with more than 1 billion people, representing 19% and 18% of the world's population, respectively."But by 2022, the population of India is expected to surpass that of China," said the report 'World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision', released by the UN. Currently, among the 10 largest countries in the world, one is in Africa (Nigeria), five are in Asia (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan), two are in Latin America (Brazil and Mexico), one is in Northern America (USA), and one is in Europe (Russian Federation). Of these, Nigeria's population is growing the most rapidly. Consequently, the population of Nigeria is projected to surpass that of the US by about 2050.By 2050, six countries are expected to exceed 300 million: China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the USA.

Yakub Memon hanged on birthday

“Look after my wife and daughter Zubaida” were the last words of the 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Abdul Razak Memon to his brother Sulaiman Memon, who had gone to see him one last time. On March 12, 1993, 13 blasts ripped through the commercial and social hubs of Mumbai killing 260 and injuring over 700. The bombs were timed and placed to create maximum havoc and create a major rip in the communal fabric of the city and the nation.

Karnataka Lokayukta Bill passed

The State Assembly passed the Karnataka Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2015.This followed the government giving in to the Opposition demand that a motion on the removal of the Lokayukta could be passed by two-thirds of the members present in the House and not by a simple majority as proposed earlier in the Bill.

Cyclone Komen to make landfall, heavy rains expected in West Bengal

A deep depression over northeast Bay of Bengal today intensified into cyclonic storm ‘Komen’, with the MeT department forecasting heavy to very heavy rains with isolated extremely heavy rains in Gangetic West Bengal. Komen, which lies centred at about 95 km south-southwest of Chittagong in Bangladesh and about 300 km east-southeast of Kolkata, would move northwards and cross Bangladesh Coast.



Mangaluru Becomes the First Indian City to Fight Malaria with Software

The Mangaluru City Corporation is all set to combat malaria with the use of technology. The unique software, developed through private initiative, at no cost to the corporation, will help control and prevent vector borne diseases interfacing with multiple stakeholders like corporation, hospitals/laboratories and field workers. This is the first time such software is being used by an Urban Local Body in the country to address the incidence of vector borne disease, which is endemic to this region. The software loaded on tabs will be used by 55-odd multi-purpose workers (MPW) of the corporation involved in source identification and destruction.

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam Laid To Rest In Rameswaram;

Thousands thronged the coastal town of Rameswaram in the southern state of Tamil Nadu for one last glimpse of former President A P J Abdul Kalam. The 'People's President' was laid to rest in the town, the place of his birth.With full military honours and in the presence of the country's top leaders, family members and a chanting crowd, Kalam was laid to rest in his hometown Rameswaram.



INTERNATIONAL Greece misses $1.8 billion payment, becomes first advanced economy to default on IMF loan

Cash-strapped Greece missed a 1.5 billion euro ($1.7 billion) payment to the International Monetary Fund.

The missed payment made Greece the only developed country ever to fall into default with the global crisis lender and underscored the utter failure of more than five months of efforts to reshape the rescue of the country`s economy and prevent it from dropping out of the eurozone.

Afghan prez Ghani nominates first female judge to Supreme Court

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani nominated a female judge to the Supreme Court on Tuesday in an unprecedented move that has angered some Islamic conservatives.

Anisa Rasouli, the head of the Afghan Women Judges Association and a former juvenile court judge, was the only female nominated to the nine-member bench of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan.

Cuba becomes first nation to eliminate mother-to-child HIV and syphilis: WHO

The World Health Organization announced that Cuba has become the first country in the world to stamp out transmission of HIV and syphilis from a mother to her child.

Starting in 2010, WHO partnered with Cuba (as well as with other countries in Latin America) as part of a push to end HIV transmission. WHO helped the country ensure all pregnant women were given early access to prenatal care, HIV and syphilis testing, and then treatment, if necessary.

UN declares a 'Level 3' humanitarian emergency in Yemen

The United Nations has declared its highest-level humanitarian emergency in conflict-torn Yemen, where it’s estimated more than 80 per cent of the population now needs assistance.

In Yemen, more than 21.1 million people need aid while 13 million face “a food security crisis” and 9.4 million have little or no access to water. Around 11.7 million have been targeted for assistance under a UN response plan.

Bangladesh-based poverty group founder wins World Food Prize

Fazle Hasan Abed who created a Bangladesh-based nonprofit organization credited with helping more than 150 million people out of poverty was named the winner of the 2015 World Food Prize

Fazle Hasan Abed created BRAC, originally known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, as a temporary relief organization to help with recovery from the 1970 typhoon that killed about 500,000 people and the subsequent war fought in 1971 to win independence from Pakistan. Bangladesh was once listed as the second poorest country in the world.

BRAC has grown into one of the world's largest nongovernmental organizations focused on alleviating poverty. It is estimated to have helped more than 150 million people out of poverty in Africa and Asia and is expanding efforts to 10 additional countries.



The World Food Prize was created by Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognize scientists and others who have improved the quality and availability of food. The foundation that awards the $250,000 prize is based in Iowa.

India keeps away from vote against Israel in U.N.

India’s abstention in the UNHRC vote against Israel, comes on the back of a number of decisions by the Modi government that have indicated a growing closeness with Israel and a shift away from past policy.

In September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UNGA, another break from precedent, and last month the government announced that Mr. Modi would become the first Indian PM to visit Israel.

India, Mauritius renew hydrographic cooperation for next 5 years

India and Mauritius have renewed the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on hydrographic cooperation for the next five years. The MoU would pave way for continued cooperation between the two countries and assist Mauritius in further consolidating its hydrographic organization.

While the Indian Navy has been rendering hydrographic assistance to Mauritius since the 1990s, it is through an MoU signed in 2005 that the two countries formalised the mechanism of hydrographic cooperation.

The area of cooperation under the agreement include periodic survey by Indian Naval ships to chart the vast Mauritian Exclusive Economic Zone ( EEZ) and various capacity building measures including setting up of a Mauritian hydrographic unit and skill development of Mauritian hydrographers.

Lord Karan Bilimoria among 8 NRIs awarded in UK

Leading NRI entrepreneur Lord Karan Bilimoria has been awarded as the International Indian of the Year for 2014-15 for his outstanding achievements in the fields of business and education.

India's deputy high commissioner to the UK, Virender Paul presented the award to Lord Bilimoria at a gala ceremony which was organized by monthly publication India Link International.

Lord Bilimoria is the founding chairman of the UK-India business council, a deputy lieutenant of Greater London, a former chancellor of Thames Valley University (now the University of West London). He was the youngest university chancellor in the UK when appointed.

Sarosh Zaiwallia, founder of Zaiwalla and Co. Solicitors, London, received the award for International Indian Life-time services to the legal profession.

Other award recipients included Uma Wadhwani (International Indian Business Woman of the year); captain Nalin Pandey, managing director of Pentagon Marine Services (International Indian Lifetime Services to Maritime Trade India and the World 2014-15); Ravinder Singh Gidar, founder Golden Care Homes (International Indian Promoting Healthcare for elderly).

BRICS leaders meet in Russia; Development Bank to dominate summit

The heads of state of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are meeting in the Russian city of Ufa for seventh BRICS Summit. Russia is currently the chair of the group, one of its priorities for this summit is to kickstart the much-anticipated BRICS dsevelopment bank.

The idea of BRICS development bank has been floated as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund to insulate the member countries in fragile economic environment. The bank will be located in Shanghai and will



be headed by Indian banker K.V. Kamath for the first six years. Later Brazil and Russia will head the BRICS Development Bank for five years each.

The pool is intended to protect national currencies from the volatility of global markets and support them in times of liquidity crises. This will be probably the most significant achievement of 7th BRICS summit hosted by Russia.

State of emergency declared in Tunisia

Tunisia has declared a state of emergency, just over a week after 38 tourists, mainly Britons, died in an attack in the resort city of Sousse. The state of emergency gives security forces more powers and limits the right of public assembly.

The state of emergency will be in place for a renewable period of 30 days. Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, in a national address, said.

The last time Tunisia declared a state of emergency was in 2011, in the uprising which overthrew President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. It was lifted in March 2014.

Acclaimed Pakistani Urdu novelist Abdullah Hussain passes away

Eminent Pakistani Urdu novelist Abdullah Hussain who authored the bestseller and critically-acclaimed Udas Naslain passed away. He was 84.

Besides Udas Naslain considered a masterpiece of Urdu literature he will be remembered for his other famous novels, Baagh, Nadaar Loag and short stories Faraib and Nashaib .

Hussain was given Prime Minister’s Lifetime Achievement Award this year.

Champagne vineyards granted World Heritage status by UNESCO

France's Champagne vineyards where the world's famous sparkling wine is produced is now among UNESCO 'World Heritage' sites, joining the likes of Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.

Grapes to produce one of the most sough-after wines are grown in the rolling hills of the northern French Champagne.

They were among 11 sites given World Heritage status by UNESCO at a meeting.

Among the other sites to be listed were Singapore's Botanic Gardens, Diyarbakir Fortress in Turkey, Susa and Maymand cave dwellings in Iran, Tusi Sites in China, Baekje Historic Areas in Korea), besides the Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its surrounding sacred landscape in Mongolia.

Chinese ex FM to be AIIB Chief

China named a former Finance Minister Jin Liqun as its choice to head the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which is being seen as a rival to the U.S. and Europe-dominated banking institutions. Former Finance Minister Jin Liqun has been formally nominated by China as its preferred candidate to head the $100 billion AIIB.

Mr. Jin (65) is currently the secretary-general of the interim multilateral secretariat for establishing AIIB. He is effectively certain to be appointed as China will initially have a 26.06 per cent share of the votes at the bank, giving it veto power over the choice of the president, which requires a 75 per cent majority. India by virtue of being the second largest shareholder may get the post of vice-president.



Controversial Meiji sites get world heritage status

UNESCO, the UN's cultural body, has conferred world heritage status on a number of new sites including some seen as representative of Japanese oppression, as South Korea lifted its opposition to the listing.

The Japanese bid to have 23 sites considered representative of Japan's industrial revolution under Emperor Meiji listed touched off a diplomatic row with South Korea and China.

Inclusion on UNESCO's list can bring considerable economic benefits, because as well as being a powerful tourist draw, world heritage sites are eligible for financial assistance towards preservation.

India Uzbekistan ink pacts to boost cooperation

On his first visit to Central Asian countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov on key bilateral and regional issues including the situation in Afghanistan as the two countries inked three pacts to boost cooperation between their foreign offices and in the field of culture and tourism.

The two countries called for comprehensive reforms of the UN structures, first of all, its Security Council, including expansion in both categories of membership. Uzbekistan reaffirmed its support to India’s candidature for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

China, India played central role in global poverty reduction: UN report

More than a billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 1990 with China and India playing a central role in global poverty reduction, a major UN report has said.

The world's most populous countries, China and India, played a central role in the global reduction of poverty. As a result of progress in China, the extreme poverty rate in Eastern Asia has dropped from 61 per cent in 1990 to only 4 per cent in 2015," the report said.

Russia vetoes ‘genocide’ resolution

Russia vetoed a draft U.N. resolution recognizing the Srebrenica massacre as genocide, branding the measure “confrontational” and a setback to reconciliation in the Balkans. Britain had put forward the draft text, hoping the Security Council would formally recognize it as an act of genocide for the first time.

Angola, China, Nigeria and Venezuela abstained from the vote on the draft resolution, days before Bosnia is due to mark the 20th anniversary of the murder of 8,000 Muslim boys and men by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.

India, US sign FATCA to curb tax evasion

India and the US will start sharing information about bank accounts or financial investments made by their citizens in each other’s countries. This move will help curb offshore tax evasions.

Both countries, signed an Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) to promote transparency on tax matters.

The US enacted FATCA in 2010 to obtain information on accounts held by its taxpayers in other countries. It allows US financial institutions to withhold a portion of payments made to foreign financial institutions (FFIs) who do not agree to identify and report information on US account-holders.

Besides, FATCA India also signed multilateral agreement on June 3, which will enable automatic exchange of information on multilateral basis with about 92 countries or so starting 2017.



PM Narendra Modi's 10-point initiative for BRICS nations

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered to organise the first BRICS fair in India and proposed making clean energy the first major initiative of the BRICS bank while outlining a 10-point programme for future cooperation. Modi's 'Das Kadam,' proposed during his address of the BRICS plenary at the 7th summit in the Russian city of Ufa.

The BRICS summit formalised the $100 billion New Development Bank and a currency reserve pool worth another $100 billion. India will host the BRICS summit in 2016.

India and Kyrgyzstan sign four agreements

Voicing grave concern over rising trend of extremism and terrorism worldwide, India and Kyrgyzstan signed four agreements including one to boost defence cooperation and hold annual joint military exercises.

The two countries also agreed to expeditiously consider signing an agreement on "combating international terrorism and other crimes"

The agreements include one on defence cooperation and culture. Two MoUs were also signed for cooperation between the Election Commissions of the two countries and on cooperation in the sphere of Standards, a move that will help economic relations.

India gets full membership of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

The Beijing-based Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) took the decision to induct India as a full member of the strategically-important bloc.

India, which has had an observer status for the last 10 years, will technically become a member by next year, after the completion of requisite formalities.

The SCO currently has China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as members. Alongside India, the process to include Pakistan as a member was also initiated.

India, Georgia ink MoU on electoral cooperation

India and Georgia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in the field of election management and administration.

The MoU was signed by Chief Election Commissioner of India, Dr. Nasim Zaidi, and Ms. Tamar Zhvania, Chairperson, Central Election Commission, Georgia.

The major aims of MoU are: promotion of exchanges of knowledge and experience in electoral processes; exchange of information, materials, expertise and training of personnel; production and distribution of materials pertaining to electoral systems, voting technology, voters' education and awareness, and participation of women and minorities in electoral process.

Iran reaches historic nuclear deal

Iran and the Europe 3+3 (US, Russia and China) and the UN atomic energy agency IAEA reached a nuclear deal.

Under the deal, sanctions imposed by the US, the European Union and the United Nations will be lifted in return for Iran agreeing to long-term curbs on a nuclear programme that the West suspects is aimed at creating a nuclear bomb.



The deal puts strict limits on Iran’s nuclear activities for at least a decade and calls for stringent U.N. oversight, with world powers hoping this will make any dash to make an atomic bomb virtually impossible. In return, Iran will get sanctions relief although the measures can “snap back” into place if there are any violations.

The international arms embargo against Iran will remain for five years. Tehran has accepted allowing the U.N. atomic watchdog tightly-controlled “managed access” to military bases.

35 per cent drop in new HIV infections since 2000: UN

New HIV infections have fallen by 35 per cent since 2000, according to the report by the United Nations, but stressed that AIDS spending had to be dramatically increased to roll back the disease.

Although new HIV infections declined to two million in 2014 compared to 3.1 million 14 years ago and in 83 countries the number of new infections has noticeably decreased or remained stagnant.

World Youth Skills Day

To raise awareness about the importance of investing in youth skills development, the United Nations General Assembly has celebrated the first World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) on 15 July 2015.

This year’s theme is “Youth skills for work and life in the post-2015 agenda”. WYSD is in line with the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, which propose two goals on education and skills for employment.

ECB gives Greece thumbs up with funding boost

The European Central Bank (ECB) increased emergency funding for Greek banks, ending a freeze of almost three weeks and urging Europe to find a way to cut the country's debt burden.

The ECB will grant a further Euro 900 million in so-called Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) to Greek banks over the coming week, a small but important back-up necessary to reopen banks shuttered for nearly three weeks as Greece teetered on the edge of quitting the euro.

India and Myanmar to strengthen Defence ties

India has reaffirmed its commitment to support the modernisation of the Myanmar Armed Forces and to share its experience in functioning in a democratic environment, cooperation in the field of IT, in dealing with emerging security challenges, and military to military cooperation including in training.

US, Cuba to reopen embassies after 54 years

The United States and Cuba will reopen embassies in their respective capitals to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries. For the first time since 1961, the Cuban red, white and blue flag will fly over Havana's newly upgraded embassy in Washington.

While the US embassy in Havana will also be automatically reopened, no American flag will fly there until Kerry visits to preside over a ceremony.

The re-establishing of embassies is a final step in the full diplomatic thaw President Obama initiated in December 2014. Since then, the US has eased some travel restrictions to Cuba and allowed for some new economic ties.



India, Russia to jointly build 200 military choppers

In a move aimed at boosting India's defence sector, 200 helicopters will be manufactured in the country with Russian collaboration as part of intensification and diversification of their strategic ties.

India, Russia sign customs pact to boost trade

With bilateral trade extremely low, India and Russia have initiated steps to remove the hindrances and boost commerce by signing an agreement in the area of customs and moving to liberalise business visas. The two countries have fixed a target of USD 30 billion to be achieved by 2025.

US win its first International Mathematical Olympiad in 21 years

A team of US teenagers just won the International Mathematical Olympiad for the first time since 1994.

The International Mathematical Olympiad is an annual competition in which top high school students from over a hundred countries attempt to solve extremely difficult math problems.

World’s First 100% Green Airport

Galapagos Ecological, located on Ecuador’s Baltra Island, is officially now the world’s first solely renewable energy-powered airport. Just solar and wind energy is drawn on to run the site, which is known also as Seymour Airport and has now been awarded the US Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification.

Maurice Obstfeld replaces Olivier Blanchard as International Monetary Fund’s new chief economist

Maurice Obstfeld replaces Olivier Blanchard as International Monetary Fund’s new chief economist

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced the successor to retiring chief economist Olivier Blanchard. Its new chief economist will be Maurice Obstfeld, taking over the role as director of the IMF’s research department in September, 2015.

WHO to launch campaign to combat hepatitis in India

The WHO will launch a new pilot campaign in India, Egypt and Uganda to combat hepatitis which affects over two million people globally through the use of unsafe injections.

The Global Injection Safety Initiative, to focus on Hepatitis B and C which cause approximately 80 per cent of liver cancer deaths counting to about 1.4 million people every year, is part of the World Health Organisation's global patient safety programme.

The World Hepatitis Day is on July 28.

UNESCO names Conakry as World Book Capital for 2017

The Unesco announced that Conakry the capital of Guinea in west Africa will be the World Book Capital for 2017.

With this selection Conakry become the 17th city in the World to be designated as World Book Capital. At present, Incheon city of South Korea is World Book Capital for year 2015.

World Book Capital is a title bestowed by UNESCO to a city in recognition of the quality of its programs to promote books and reading and the dedication of all players in the book industry.



India ranks 12th in terms of power generation from nuclear source

India ranks 12th in the world in terms of power generation from nuclear sources, according to data published in May 2015 by the Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The current installed nuclear power capacity is 5780 MW, which is expected to increase to 10080 MW on progressive completion of projects under commissioning and construction by 2019.

Peter Higgs receives world’s oldest scientific prize

Nobel Prize winner Peter Higgs has joined the ranks of Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein by winning the world’s oldest scientific prize, the Royal Society’s Copley Medal, for his pioneering work on the theory of the Higgs boson, which was discovered in 2012.

86-year-old Higgs received the Copley Medal for his fundamental contribution to particle physics with his theory explaining the origin of mass in elementary particles, confirmed by the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.

The Copley medal was first awarded by the Royal Society in 1731, 170 years before the first Nobel Prize.

China launches two new Navigational Satellites into space

A Chinese Long March-3B rocket successfully launched two new-generation satellites on July 25, 2015 for the country’s homegrown global navigation and positioning network.

The satellites, designated BDS (short for BeiDou Navigation Satellite System) M1-S and M2-S were put into a medium-Earth orbit (MEO) about 13,700 miles (22,048 km) above Earth.

The two satellites launched Saturday are the 18th and 19th of the BeiDou system. BeiDou provides global coverage with positioning, navigation, and timing services.

First-ever UN Nelson Mandela Prize winners honoured by General Assembly

The United Nations General Assembly on 24 July 2015 marked Nelson Mandela International Day – which is observed on 18 July by awarding the first-ever UN Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize, recognizing the South African leader’s contributions to democracy, justice and reconciliation and his dedication to the service of humanity.

The Prize was designed to honour and recognize the “outstanding achievements” of two distinguished individuals, one female and one male, who have dedicated their lives to the service to humanity, particularly in the promotion of reconciliation, social cohesion and community development.

The first two laureates of the Prize are Dr. Helena Ndume of Namibia and Jorge Fernando Branco Sampaio of Portugal.

Dr. Ndume of Namibia is an ophthalmologist whose life’s work has been the treatment of blindness and eye-related illnesses, both in Namibia and throughout the developing world.

Mr. Sampaio of Portugal became a leader in the struggle for the restoration of democracy and from 1996 to 2006 served as President of the country.

Forced labour India's largest trafficking problem: US report

An annual U.S Trafficking in Persons report for 2015, the U.S. State Department retained India’s classification as a “Tier II” nation for human trafficking concerns, which implied that the U.S. viewed India as a country



whose government did not fully comply with its Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards, but was making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

Tier 2 ranking to countries means that they do not fully comply with the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act's minimum standards, but were making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

WTO formally accepts Kazakhstan as new member

The World Trade Organization General Council at its headquarters in Geneva formally accepted Kazakhstan's bid to join the body, ending nearly two decades of negotiations that the WTO has called among the most challenging in its history.

Once the formal signing and ratification process is complete, Kazakhstan will become the WTO's 162nd member state.

28 July: World Hepatitis Day

World Hepatitis Day, observed on July 28 every year, aims to raise global awareness of hepatitis. Viral hepatitis a group of infectious diseases known as hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide, causing acute and chronic liver disease and killing close to 1.5 million people every year, mostly from hepatitis B and C.

The date of 28 July was chosen for World Hepatitis Day in honor of the birthday of Nobel Laureate Professor Baruch Samuel Blumberg, discoverer of the hepatitis B virus and developer of the first hepatitis B vaccine.

Nepal temple bans mass animal slaughter at festival

Nepalese temple authorities end a centuries-old Hindu tradition of mass animal slaughter during Gadhimai festival that attracts hundreds of thousands of worshippers.

The Gadhimai festival, held once every five years, sees hordes of devotees from Nepal and India flock to a temple in the Himalayan nation's southern plains to sacrifice thousands of animals in the hope of appeasing the Hindu goddess of power, Gadhimai.

British PM on landmark first visit to Vietnam

David Cameron hailed rapidly growing trade with Vietnam during the first visit by a British Prime Minister to the communist country, as a number of key business deals were signed. Bilateral trade between the two countries has doubled in the last three years, but it still represents just 0.5 percent of the UK's total global trade.

Russia vetoes Security Council proposal on MH17 tribunal

Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would set up an international criminal court to prosecute those responsible for shooting down a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine a year ago. The foreign ministers of the Netherlands, Australia and Ukraine attended a meeting over the downing that killed all 298 people on board Flight MH17. The countries are among the five nations investigating the incident, along with Malaysia and Belgium. Ukraine and the West suspect the plane, traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was hit by a surface-to-air missile fired by Russian soldiers or Russia-backed separatist rebels on July 17, 2014. Russia denies that, and state media have alleged the plane was shot down by a Ukrainian missile or warplane.

Myanmar frees 7,000 political prisoners

Myanmar freed some political prisoners and 155 Chinese citizens jailed for illegal logging in an amnesty for nearly 7,000 people, a move that could ease diplomatic tensions with China.A total of 6,966 prisoners were pardoned including the Chinese citizens held in Kachin state, of which 153 were given life sentences last week that prompted a diplomatic protest by an “extremely concerned” China.



BUSINESS AND ECONOMY Airtel becomes 3rd largest mobile operator in world

Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel has become the world's third largest mobile operator with 303 million subscribers.

With operations in 20 countries, Bharti Airtel, which is present in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Africa, has "become the third largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers.

China Mobile, according to WCIS, is the top mobile operator in the world with 626.27 million subscribers. Vodafone Group of UK ranks second with 403.08 million subscribers.

Core sectors grow fastest in 6 months

Output of the eight core infrastructure sectors increased 4.4 per cent in May 2015 (year-on-year), the fastest in six months, following two months of contraction.

The growth was driven mainly by expansion in production of refinery products, coal and electricity, according to provisional data released by the Commerce & Industry Ministry.

Cement, steel, fertilizer and crude oil, too, posted increases, although at lower rates. Natural gas was the only item that suffered a contraction in production during the month.

The Eight Core Industries are Coal, Cement, Electricity, Crude Oil, Refinery products, Steel, Fertilizers and Natural Gas. These eight core industries account for about 38 per cent of the country’s industrial production.

Flipkart ranked second in top global book sellers

E-commerce major Flipkart has been ranked second among top book sellers of the world, according to a survey. Flipkart is the only Indian brand to be ranked among the top five, says the survey report 'Top 40 Global Bookstore Mind Share' (BMS Index).

The index was based on two factors -- the number of people thinking about these stores and its frequency. Flipkart retails over 30 million books spread across literature, fiction, academic, biographies, business and management and self-help.

HTC to set up manufacturing base in India

Encouraged by strong sales growth in India, Taiwanese handsets major HTC has decided to start making products in the country along with a local partner. HTC has manufacturing units in Taiwan and China.

Currently, global handset makers like Samsung and domestic players like Micromax and Spice have assembly units in the country. Given the government's push for 'Make in India', many device makers have evinced interest in starting manufacturing in the country.

India to become first country to make non-financial audit mandatory for companies

India will become the first country to make non-financial audit mandatory for companies of certain class. The audit, also known as secretarial audit, will ensure that all listed companies and public limited companies with paid-up capital of at least Rs 50 crore or public companies with a turnover of at least Rs 250 crore comply with all sections of Companies Act 2013.

The step is part of government's effort to improve governance and transparency in Indian companies to provide comfort to foreign investors.



For non-compliance of audit, government has introduced penal provisions including fine between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.

P-Notes cover lost ground, investments race to over 7-yr high

Investments through participatory notes (P-Notes) into India's capital market stood at Rs 2.85 lakh crore (about USD 45 billion) at the end of May, the highest level in more than seven years. P-Notes, mostly used by overseas HNIs (High Net worth Individuals), hedge funds and other foreign institutions, allow such investors to invest in Indian markets through registered Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

BHEL commissions Sudan's largest power project

BHEL executed the 500 MW, oil-fired Kosti thermal power project on an engineering, procurement and construction basis. The company designed, manufactured, supplied and installed the power project with four units of 125 MW each, BHEL said.

The Kosti project is BHEL's largest outside India and the first for the company in Africa. Overseas projects that BHEL is executing include the 64 MW Grand Katende hydro project in Congo, 18 MW power plant in Comoros, 8x183 MW Keban hydro rehabilitation project in Turkey and three hydro projects in Bhutan with a combined capacity of 2,940 MW.

RBI signed Special Currency Swap Agreement with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka

The Reserve Bank of India has signed a special currency swap agreement with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka that will allow the latter to draw up to $1.1 billion.

Under the arrangement, the Sri Lankan bank can draw up to $1.1 billion for a maximum period of six months.

This special arrangement is in addition to the existing Framework on Currency Swap Arrangement for the SAARC member countries.

Foreign equity composite cap: Banking, defence ‘strategic’, not part of new norm

Even as the government has done away with the difference between the various forms of foreign investments including FDI, FII and NRI by bringing in composite cap for foreign investment, two sectors — banking and defence — would be kept out of the new provisions given their “strategic importance”.

Currently, foreign investment of up to 74 per cent of the paid-up capital is allowed in the banking sector while the permissible limits through FIIs, FPIs and NRIs is 24 per cent which can go up to 49 per cent through a special resolution by bank.

FDI limit of a composite 49 per cent is allowed in the defence sector but the portfolio investment by FPIs/FIIs/NRIs/QFIs and investments by FVCIs together can not exceed 24 per cent of the total equity of the investee.

Pay minimum card due in 90 days or be tagged as NPA

The Reserve Bank of India asked banks to treat credit card accounts as non-performing if the minimum amount due is not paid fully within 90 days of the payment due date mentioned in the credit card statement.

This represents a tightening of the earlier norms when credit card accounts were classified as NPA if the minimum amount was overdue for 120 days.



In credit cards, the amount spent is billed to users through a monthly statement with a due date for repayment. Banks give an option to the card users to pay either the full amount or a fraction of it or a minimum amount on the due date.

Government sets up council for trade promotion

Concerned over continuous decline in exports, the government has constituted council comprising members of the Centre and states to promote India's overseas shipments.

The Union Commerce and Industry Minister will be the chairperson of 'Council for Trade Development and Promotion', while trade/commerce ministers in states and Union Territories will be the members. The council will be recommendatory in nature and will meet at least once every year

The council will provide a platform to state governments and UTs for articulating their perspective on trade policy to help them develop and pursue export strategies in line with national foreign trade policy.

BRICS bank opens for business in China

The New Development Bank (NDB) also known as BRICS bank floated by the BRICS nations, including India, to step up infrastructure funding in the emerging economies formally started its operations at its headquarters in Shanghai.

The BRICS nations represent 40 per cent of the world's population and agreed in 2013 to establish the bank, with estimated capital of $100 billion (90 billion euros).

Bhanu Pratap Sharma appointed as Chairperson of FSSAI

Health and Family Welfare Secretary Bhanu Pratap Sharma was given additional charge of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India ( FSSAI), Chairperson, for three months an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

He is presently working as Additional Director General (Forests) in the Ministry.

Government plans bond guarantee entity with Rs 5,000-crore corpus to boost market

The government plans to set up a guarantor for corporate bonds in an initiative aimed at boosting the market for such debt instruments by giving comfort to investors.

The proposed Bond Guarantee Corporation of India, which will have a net worth of around Rs 5,000 crore, is envisaged as a non-government entity with a 51% stake for the private sector.

Entity will offer credit enhancement product and partial guarantee support to boost ratings of long term bonds. The government will elect the chairman of the proposed company, which will have representation on the board through other partners.

NRIs can invest in NPS

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority have clarified that (non-resident Indians (NRIs) can invest in National Pension System (NPS) to get a social security cover.

PFRDA, Chairman Hemant Contractor has said that NPS scheme for NRIs will benefit all individuals especially those living in the Middle-East as they do not have any mandatory social security benefit.

PFRDA is in talks with lenders such as SBI, HDFC Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Bank and several other south India-based banks to tap potential of NRIs.



Cabinet extends 3% subvention scheme on short-term crop loans

In order to ensure farmers receive short-term crop loans up to Rs. 3 lakh at seven per cent interest per annum, a proposal to extend the interest subvention scheme for banks was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). Now banks will also provide additional interest subvention of 3 per cent per annum to those farmers who repay on time.

Govt may permit 100% foreign investment in white-labelled ATM operations

The government is likely to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in white labelled ATM operations under automatic route to promote financial inclusion.

According to the Reserve Bank of India guidelines, white labelled ATMs to be set up by non-bank entities would provide banking services to customers, based on cards (debit/credit/prepaid) issued by banks.

White labelled ATMs are set up by private non-bank companies that own and operate their own brand of ATMs.

Reliance Industries, Tata Motors among 7 Indian firms in world's 500 largest companies: Fortune

Seven Indian companies, including Reliance Industries and Tata Motors, are among the world's 500 largest companies, according to a list compiled by Fortune that has been topped by retail giant Walmart. It is followed by Chinese petroleum refining giant Sinopec Group on the second spot; Netherlands- based Royal Dutch Shell (3), China National Petroleum (4) and Exxon Mobil (5).

The Indian companies on the 2015 Fortune Global 500 list are Indian Oil ranked 119 on the list, Reliance Industries (158), Tata Motors (254), State Bank of India (260), Bharat Petroleum (280), Hindustan Petroleum and Oil and Natural Gas with (449)

Companies are ranked by total revenues for their respective fiscal years ended on or before March 31, 2015.

10 Indian companies like Aurobindo Pharma, HCL, and TCS in Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 list

10 Indian companies, including Aurobindo Pharma, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, and HDFC Bank, have made it to the Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 list. India has the second-highest number of companies on the list for the fifth year in a row.

The Fab 50's brightest star, over the decade, was India's HDFC Bank. The bank has made to the list nine times, more than any other company.

The 'Fab 50' companies were chosen from a pool of 1,116 firms that have at least USD 3 billion in annual revenue or market cap. Moreover, companies must be publicly traded for at least a year.

India ranks third among top 10 countries for LEED green buildings with 1,883 certified projects

India ranks third on the US Green Building Council's annual ranking of the top 10 countries for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings. LEED is a widely used green building rating system.

The projects that got LEED certification in 2014 included Ascendas IT Park in Chennai, the Thomson Reuters Bangalore Campus, the Ericsson Tower in Gurgaon, the Nirlon Knowledge Park, and Building 6 in Mumbai and the DLF IT Park in Chandigarh.



New Development Bank's first loan will be in Chinese currency

NDB President K V Kamath has said that the first loan to be issued by the $100 billion New Development Bank (NDB) of the five-nation BRICS bloc in April next year would in Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB).

The NDB opened in Shanghai on July 21 to finance infrastructure projects, mainly in BRICS countries - the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Reliance Group arm signs MoU with Augur

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group through its entity Reliance Unmanned Systems has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Augur Overseas Operation of Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Augur Aeronautical Centre, to manufacture Aerostats and Airships in India.

As per the MoU, both the parties will collaborate on new technologies for the civil and military market as part of the ‘Make in India’ policy. The two companies have agreed to form a joint venture (JV) firm with Reliance having 51 per cent stake as per Government’s policy.

CSC, HCL form joint venture to provide technology services, solutions to banks

IT companies CSC and HCL Technologies have signed an agreement to form a banking software and services company to provide technology services and solutions to the banking industry.

The joint venture will invest in platform modernization and product functionality enhancement and will capitalize on the proven capabilities of both companies in addressing the multi-billion-dollar, global core banking software market.

Amazon overtakes Walmart to become largest US retailer

Amazon overtook Walmart, become the largest US retailer by market capitalisation, after announcing a rare profit.

The US e-commerce giant Amazon, which is also a major player in online video and cloud computing, reported a net profit of $92 million while revenues jumped 20% from a year ago to $23.18 billion.

The company founded by Jeff Bezos 20 years ago has been known for investing in long-term projects with little concern for short-term profits, but some of those investments now appear to be paying off.

BEL bags Dun & Bradstreet award

Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has bagged the Dun & Bradstreet’s ‘India’s Top PSUs Awards 2015 in the electrical and electronic equipment sector.

The Dun & Bradstreet ‘India’s Top PSUs Awards are an acknowledgement for the critical role that the PSUs play in the development of the Indian economy.

BEL has been at the forefront in providing critical communication, night vision, and electronic warfare and radar systems to the Indian Defense services ever since its inception posts Independence in 1954.

IndusInd Bank acquires RBS’ bullion financing business for Rs 4,100 crore

Private sector lender IndusInd Bank has completed the acquisition of the diamond and jewellery financing business and related deposit portfolio of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).



Britain’s largest public bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was in talks with IndusInd Bank to sell off its bullion financing business and had signed a non-binding agreement in April 2015.

CCI imposes Rs. 420 crore fines on Hyundai for anti-competitive practices

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 420 crore on leading automobile manufacturer Hyundai Motors for unfair trade practices.

The competition regulator found Hyundai guilty of indulging in in anti-competitive practices as the company did not make genuine spare parts freely available in the open market. The fine has been calculated at 2% of average turnover.

To boost digital banking, SBI rolls out Rewardz scheme

The country’s largest bank, State Bank of India, will now reward you for timely repayment of loans. An SBI customer can not only earn reward points for paying the loan instalment on time but also for opening an account or transferring funds through internet or mobile banking.

To encourage customers to use alternative banking channels, SBI launched the State Bank Rewardz, an enterprise-wise loyalty programme as the bank celebrated its 60th anniversary.

World Bank approves $650 m loan for eastern freight corridor

The World Bank has approved an additional loan of $650 million for the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), which is aimed at the faster delivery of goods between the northern and eastern parts of the country.

This round of loans to the Eastern DFC follows two other loans by the World Bank. The third round of World Bank funding, will build the 401 km Ludhiana-Khurja section in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. It will also help develop the institutional capacity of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) to build and maintain the DFC infrastructure network according to the World Bank.

SBI partners with MakeMyTrip for travel biz

In its series of digital initiatives and tie-ups, State Bank of India, country’s largest bank, partnered with online travel company MakeMyTrip.com to capitalise on the business opportunities of the booming e-commerce and m-commerce ecosystem.

The alliance includes partnership with personal banking unit for consumer facing propositions – including EMIs on purchase of holidays & international travel, customized travel products like Forex cards and travel products that inspire SBI customers to travel.

India is now a $2-trillion economy

India’s GDP crossed the $2-trillion mark in 2014, according to data released by the World Bank. After taking 60 years to reach the $1-trillion mark, India added the next trillion in just seven years.

India’s growth rate, at 7.4 per cent in 2014, makes it the fastest growing major economy along with China’s, which is a whopping $10.4 trillion in size.

Despite its increase in per capita gross national income (GNI), India has remained in the ‘lower middle income’ category ($1,046-$4,125).

China, however, with a per capita GNI of $7,380 and an average annual growth of 15.6 per cent, will leave the ‘upper middle income’ category by 2018 to become a ‘high income’ country like the U.S., the U.K., Germany and Japan.



The World Bank’s data on gross national income per capita, the total value added by all producers within the country, plus income received from citizens working abroad, divided by the population of the country show Bangladesh, Kenya, Myanmar, and Tajikistan are now ‘middle income’ countries from being ‘low income’ nations.

RBI introduces new security feature to make Indian currency less prone to counterfeiting

To make Indian currency less prone to counterfeiting, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has started printing Rs 100 notes on which the last six numerals of the nine-digit currency note number will be in ascending print size from left to right.

The central bank will issue all currency notes, from Rs 10 to Rs 1,000 denomination, on which the numbering will be in this new ascending print size pattern, also called 'exploding font'.

Government launches mobile app; Twitter handle of Panchayati Raj Ministry

Union Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh launched an online mobile application for better planning of Panchayat assets and the official Twitter handle of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, coinciding with the ongoing 'Digital India Week'.

The initiatives and programmes as well as important development of the ministry will be communicated through the Twitter handle "@MoPRInida", the mobile app "m-asset". It can be used by citizens to capture photographs and geographical coordinates of various assets available at Gram Panchayat level.

The mobile app will enable these assets to be seen on a map and will be useful for planning by the Panchayats and the government.

BSNL launches ‘mobile wallet’

State-run operator BSNL launched a pre-paid card linked mobile wallet service which would allow its customers to transfer money, pay for services as well as withdraw cash of up to Rs. 1 lakh.

The wallet service, Speed Pay, allows a customer to load money even if he does not have a bank account. The money loaded in the mobile wallet can be transferred to a bank account and even withdrawn at bank branches or BSNL outlets. Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated the service.

BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava said that Loading money into wallet from a bank account is an option. BSNL customers, who don’t have bank accounts, can also load money by visiting any BSNL retail outlet and asking the retailer to recharge their mobile wallet account and pay for various services. The service was launched in partnership with IT company Pyro.

HDFC Bank launches watch banking

HDFC Bank has become the first bank in India to launch Watch Banking for Apple Watch. It aims to provide banking services through all wearable devices across platforms like iOS and Android.

HDFC Bank will provide a total of 10 banking transactions in the current launch phase. Some of them being: view account information, bill payments, recharges, hot listing facilities, locate nearest branch/ATM/offer, request statement and cheque book.



Tata Trusts, Google team up to get more rural women on Net

Taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India campaign a step ahead, the Ratan Tata-led Tata Trusts, a philanthropic organisation of the Tata Group, has tied up with Google India to educate rural women about the internet.

The joint initiative, called Internet Saathi, has designed 1,000 special bicycles equipped with devices (iPads, laptops and smartphones) that will reach out to 4,500 villages, educating over 5 lakh rural women.

The initiative will kick off from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jharkhand and will be rolled out across the country over the next 18 months.

Internet Saathi will be available in a village for a minimum of two days a week for four-six months. Once the cart has completed the training in a cluster of three villages, it will be moved to the adjoining cluster for a similar exercise.

FDI in manufacturing of tobacco products prohibited: RBI

Reserve Bank said the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in manufacturing of tobacoo products such as manufacturing of cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes, of tobacco or of tobacco substitutes is prohibited, though activities such as retail and wholesale trading fall under the sectoral restrictions.

The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, under the Commerce Ministry has framed these guidelines on sectoral restrictions.

SBI launches ‘Project Tatkal’

The country’s largest lender State Bank of India launched an initiative to provide doorstep services and expedite home loan application process.

The initiative known as ‘Project Tatkal’ will help get the loan within 10 days after receipt of application form and relevant supporting documents. The bank has also recently introduced an online customer acquisition solution (OCAS) for instant e-approval of home loan applications.

Database to check fraud In a bid to check frauds and multiple claims, the life insurance industry is planning to set up a centralised database of clients by this year, according to V. Manickam the secretary general of the Life Insurance Council.

The database aims at detecting fraud or duplication of claims in the life insurance industry. The data base is likely to be ready by December, 2015. 24 life insurance companies will be entering into agreements with the vendor to provide details of their policy-holders.

Corp Bank launches MUDRA card on RuPay platform

Hasmukh Adhia, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Union Ministry of Finance, launched the first MUDRA card under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) at a function in the head office of Corporation Bank in Mangaluru.

Corporation Bank is the first bank to launch the MUDRA card based on the RuPay platform.

The card facilitates the withdrawal and use of the working capital finance by micro entrepreneurs.

PMMY aims to ‘fund the unfunded’ and ‘formalise the informal’ under non-farm micro units in manufacturing, trading and services with affordable credit up to Rs. 10 lakh. Under PMMY, three loan schemes are offered to



the entrepreneurs based on their capacity to repay. ‘Shishu’ scheme provides loan up to Rs. 50,000. An amount of up to Rs. 5 lakh will be lent under ‘Kishore’ scheme. ‘Tarun’ scheme offers loan up to Rs. 10 lakh.

Adani Group to set up 650 MW solar power plant in Tamil Nadu

The Adani group on Saturday entered into an agreement with Tamil Nadu government to set up a nearly 650 MW solar power park at Ramanathapuram-Kamudhi belt with an estimated investment of Rs 4,536 crore. This is considered to be the world’s largest solar park at one place.

Japan’s SoftBank to set up 20 GW solar plant in Andhra Pradesh

Japanese multinational telecom company, SoftBank has expressed its readiness to establish an ambitious 20 Gigawatt solar power plant in Andhra Pradesh.

As part of ‘Make in India’ initiative, SoftBank will take up manufacturing of solar panels in the State. Besides offering financial assistance for the proposed university on non-conventional energy resources, SoftBank also came forward to provide scholarships to engineering students who specialise in solar energy.

Government allows foreign retail investors to have more than one joint venture

Government allowed foreign investors to conduct business through more than one joint venture in India.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) clarified whether the brand owner or non-resident entity/entities can undertake single brand retail trading of the specific brand through more than one company in India.

IDBI Bank signs refinance agreement with Mudra Bank for PMMY

State-run IDBI Bank has signed an agreement with Mudra Bank for refinancing of loans given to small enterprises.

As per the agreement, the Bank will offer credit facilities up to Rs 10 lakh to micro enterprises, at a competitive interest rate under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana ( PMMY) and Mudra will be providing refinance assistance to the bank for eligible sanctioned loan cases.

The agreement was signed by IDBI Bank Executive Director S K V Srinivasan and Mudra Bank CEO Jiji Mammen.

India overtakes US as 3rd largest steel producer

India has overtaken the US to become the world's third largest steel producer and is working towards achieving 300 million tonnes (MT) target in the next 10 years. So far India was the 4th largest steel producer in the world only after China, Japan and the US. However, during the first five months of this calendar year, India has achieved the 3rd position in the global steel production.

First postal ATM opens in Mysuru

With the aim of bringing all post offices in the country into one network through the core banking project, the first postal ATM facility for account holders of postal savings was opened in Mysuru. 163 post offices have been brought under core banking. Account holders of public, pvt. sector banks cannot use this facility for now.



Nirmala Sitharaman launches e-governance initiatives for marine sector under 'Digital India'

In a move aimed at providing single window solution to exporters and other stakeholders of the marine products industry, the government launched various e-governance tools including a mobile app for aquaculture under the 'Digital India' programme.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched two programmes - shrimp price information over SMS by a missed call, and m-KRISHI, a mobile app to provide all kinds of information to the aqua farmers. The m-KRISHI mobile app, which is a pilot project presently operated in Gujarat, will be extended all over India in next three months. This app will provide an easy tool for book keeping, advisory services and weather informations to the farmers.

The minister also launched an online MPEDA (Marine Products Export Development Authority) registration portal for exporters and a modern portal for the authority.

Ashok Lahiri to chair Bandhan Bank board; founder unveils logo

Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank, set to start operations in August, announced its new board of directors. It also unveiled the new logo – an image of the ‘diya’ – designed by Ogilvy and Mather. The bank will be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee.

Ashok Kumar Lahiri, a former Chief Economic Advisor to the Centre, will be the Chairman, while Chandra Shekhar Ghosh will be the MD and CEO of the bank. Both appointments are subject to Reserve Bank of India approval.

RBI allows issue of prepaid cards by mass rapid operators

The Reserve Bank of India has given its final nod for introduction of a new category of semi-closed Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) for Mass Transit Systems (PPI-MTS) to encourage migration from cash to electronic payments.

PPIs are payment instruments that facilitate purchase of goods and services against the value stored on such instruments. Among other features, these instruments will be reloadable, can have a balance limit of up to Rs. 2,000, and minimum validity of six months from the date of issue.

These instruments will be issued by the mass transit system operator after authorisation under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.

India to beat China again as fastest-growing economy in 2016: IMF

India will be the world's fastest growing economy for the second consecutive year in 2016 at 7.5 per cent, IMF said.

In its World Economic Outlook Update released here, IMF retained India's growth projection for current year at 7.5 per cent which will be higher than China's 6.8 per cent. It forecast a growth rate of 7.5 per cent for India in 2016 as well, as against China's 6.3 per cent.

IMF's growth projection for India, however, is lower than the estimates of the Indian Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India. The Finance Ministry expects GDP growth to be 8-8.5 per cent in 2015-16, while the Reserve Bank of India has estimated it at 7.6 per cent.



eMudhra launches eSign Services

eMudhra Limited, a leading certifying firm in the country for digital signatures, launched eSign services. eSign is an online electronic signature service which can facilitate an Aadhaar holder to digitally sign a document within seconds. The signatures generated by eSign are legally valid and secure under the Information Technology Act, 2000, the company said.

MakeMyTrip, RBL Bank, IRCTC in Fortune India Next 500 list

MakeMyTrip, RBL Bank, Inox wind and IRCTC are among the firms that have made it to the Fortune Next 500 list of Indian companies.

RBL Bank (formerly known as Ratnakar Bank), which plans to list its shares on the exchanges, scored the 31st position, while online travel firm MakeMyTrip bagged 122 slot and Indian Railway's tourism and catering arm IRCTC ranked at the 328 position.

State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has launched the ‘SBT NRI Family Card'

State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has launched the ‘SBT NRI Family Card,’ a prepaid card for resident Indians family member/dependent/acquaintance of NRIs. The prepaid card can be used for cash withdrawals through ATM, online payments and POS (point of sale) payments at merchant establishments.

FDI up 48% since 'Make in India' campaign launch

In a sign that reflects investor’s confidence in the Centre's 'Make in India' initiative, the foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country has witnessed a 48 per cent jump in the seven-month period till April 2015, the Commerce and Industry Ministry said.

The increased inflows of FDI in India especially in a climate of contracting worldwide investments indicate the faith that overseas investors have imposed in the country's economy and the reforms initiated by the government towards ease of doing business.

Centre to set up trade facilitation council to promote exports

Concerned over declining exports, the government will soon set up a trade facilitation council comprising members of the Centre and states to promote India’s overseas shipments.

The council will be chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and secretaries of key ministries and state ministers will be the members. The main objective of the council will be facilitating trade from states in a bid to boost the country’s exports. The move is aimed at achieving the $900 billion exports target by 2019-20.

Contracting for the sixth month in a row, India’s exports dipped by 20.19 per cent in May to $22.34 billion. The Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), under the Ministry of Commerce, is an official organisation for collection, compilation and dissemination of India’s trade statistics and commercial information.

New SIDBI fund to offer soft, cheaper loans to MSMEs

The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has set up new fund for Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the manufacturing sector by which they can get soft loans and term loans at concessional interest rates.



Kshatrapati Shivaji, Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI, said the SMILES Fund (Small and Medium Enterprise Soft Loans Scheme) has been carved out of the Rs. 10,000 crore allocated by the RBI to SIDBI from banks’ priority sector lending (PSL) shortfall for a period of three years.

There will be no upper ceiling on the amount of funds that can be raised under SMILES. Top-rated MSMEs could get soft as well as term loans at 10 per cent.

Snapdeal & SIDBI sign MoU to provide financial help to India’s MSMEs

Snapdeal, the country's largest online marketplace, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), which will see the state-owned financial institution join the e-commerce company's ambitious Capital Assist initiative.

The MoU was signed by Snapdeal Co-founder and Chief Executive Kunal Bahl, and Kshatrapati Shivaji, chairman and managing director of SIDBI.

Through this partnership with SIDBI, Snapdeal will provide small and medium-sized businesses the necessary financial and non-financial support to help expand their business and reach.

Now, Use 'One-Time Password' to E-File Income Tax Returns

The Income Tax Department launched its ambitious One Time Password (OTP) based e-filing verification system for taxpayers, thereby ending the practice of sending paper acknowledgement to its office in Bengaluru. The facility can be accessed using internet banking, Aadhaar number, ATM and email. These new measures would completely eliminate the need of sending the paper acknowledgement, called ITR-V, through post to the I-T Central Processing Centre (CPC) based in Bengaluru. Composite Cap approved for foreign investments

In a significant simplification of the foreign direct investment policy, the Union Cabinet approved a proposal to scrap the distinctions among different types of overseas investment by shifting to a single composite limit.

The composite foreign investment caps will now encompass all types of foreign investments — foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign institutional investors (FIIs), foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), non-resident Indians (NRIs), foreign venture capital investors (FVCIs), qualified foreign investors (QFIs), limited liability partnerships (LLPs) and depository receipts (DRs). Following this, Indian companies can now have just two kinds of capital — Indian and foreign — ending the categories that made the FDI policy complicated.

This will immediately benefit sectors such as multi-brand retail and pharmaceuticals that do not have sub-limits within the overall limit and will henceforth not need approval for increasing portfolio investment up to 49 per cent of the total holding.

RBI allows banks without ATM network to issue debit cards with bigger banks as sponsors

The Reserve Bank of India has permitted banks without ATM network to issue debit cards in tie-up with a bank that has its own network as it pushes for cashless transactions.

RBI has also mandated guidelines to become sub-member of the National Financial Switch (NFS) for carrying out such transactions.

NFS, a mechanism developed by National Payments Corporation of India, enables money transfers, direct payments, and account balance checking and so on.



Government sanctions Rs 700 crore additional funds for capitalisation of regional rural banks

The government has sanctioned an additional Rs 700 crore for the recapitalisation of weak regional rural banks (RRBs) and extended the validity period for the fund infusion to next fiscal.

RRBs were established under Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976 to create an alternative channel to the 'cooperative credit structure' and to ensure sufficient institutional credit for the rural and agriculture sector.

RRBs are jointly owned by the Centre, state governments and sponsor banks with the issued capital shared in the proportion of 50 per cent, 15 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.

Assocham ranks Kerala highest in agri exports-to-investment ratio

An Assocham study has ranked Kerala top among States for achieving a ratio of about 735 in terms of actual exports to actual investments through Agri Eport Zones (AEZs).

It is too far ahead of others in the ranking that second-placed Rajasthan comes in at with a ratio of 59.5, followed by Punjab (21) and Karnataka (17), the study titled ‘Agri exports: Issues and concerns.’

Ashish Bahuguna appointed as new FSSAI chairman

Former agriculture secretary Ashish Bahuguna has been appointed as the chairman of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. The tenure of the chairman is for three years.

The position of the chairman at the food authority was lying vacant.Until now Bhanu Pratap Sharma, secretary health and family welfare, was temporarily in charge of the position.

RS Sharma named new TRAI Chairman

IT secretary RS Sharma has been appointed the new Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman.

The appointments committee of the Cabinet approved Sharma's appointment for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is the earliest,

Sharma is an IAS officer is a 1978 Jharkhand batch and replaces Rahul Khullar, who had retired in May.

IDFC gets banking licence from RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted banking licence to Infrastructure financing firm IDFC Ltd for undertaking banking business in the country under Section 22(1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.

Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) and Bandhan Financial Services Pvt Ltd emerged successful out of 25 contenders for new bank licences issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in April last year. Bandhan Financial got RBI approval last month.

Tata brand retains number 1 position

The Tata brand retained its number 1 position as India’s in this year’s annual study conducted by the U.K. based Brand Finance, a leading brand valuation consultancy.For the first time, the brand value of Tata has exceeded $15 billion, a noteworthy achievement by the 147-year-old, $109 billion in revenue Tata Group. Tata is the world’s 65th most valuable brand. Tata is India’s leading brand by a long way on almost every measure. It is the only truly global mega brand originating in India, The top 10 Indian brands include Tata Group (brand value $15378 million), State Bank of India ($6,563 million), LIC ($4,927 m), Airtel ($4,524 m), Reliance ($3,663 m), Indian Oil ($3,493 m), Infosys ($3,414 m), L&T ($3,235 m), HCL ($3,148 m), ONGC ($2,899 m).



BNP Paribas acquires online broker Sharekhan

Sharekhan.com, one of the first movers in the country’s online broking segment, has been acquired by French bank BNP Paribas. While the deal size was not disclosed,But the as per the sources,lthe company has been valued at about Rs. 2,200 crore. Mumbai-based Sharekhan offers broking solutions across all asset classes to more than 1.2 million private clients and holds 7 per cent of the market share in terms of number of accounts.

RBI to issue 10 rupee coin to mark International Yoga Day

The Reserve Bank announced plans to put into circulation 10 rupee coins to commemorate the International Day of Yoga.The coin bears the logo of the International Day of Yoga, with the inscription Saamanjasya evam shanthi ke liye yog “ in Devnagri script and “yoga for harmony and peace” around the logo. At the bottom of the logo the date June 21 is inscribed. The inscription Anthar rashtriya yoga divas in Devnagri script is on the left periphery and “international day of yoga” in English on the right periphery is written on this side of the coin. The obverse of the coin bears the Lion Capitol of Ashoka Pillar in the centre with the legend Sathyamev Jayate inscribed below, this is flanked on the left periphery with the word Bharat in Devnagri script and on the right periphery flanked with the word “INDIA” in English.



SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Nasa unveils boomerang-shaped plane to fly on Mars

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has unveiled a boomerang-shaped spacecraft that could be the first to take flight on Mars to look for potential landing sites for future manned mission to the red planet.

A prototype of the Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, or Prandtl-m, which is a flying wing aircraft with a twist, is planned to be ready for launch from a high altitude balloon later this year, Nasa said.

Chile wins Copa America title 2015 of football for first time

Chile won the Copa America title for the first time in its history after a dramatic penalty shootout against Lionel Messi's Argentina in the final in Santiago.

Messi was the only Argentine to convert his kick, but Chile was successful with all its four, the clinching effort from Alexis Sanchez sparking wild scenes of celebration in the Estadio Nacional.

Coast Guard commissions 3rd IPV 'Rani Durgavati' at Vizag

Indian Coast Guard commissioned 'ICGS Rani Durgavati', the 3rd Inshore Patrol Vessel (IPV) of its kind. The IPV, designed and built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited, is equipped with the most-advanced and sophisticated navigational communication sensors and equipment.

'Rani Durgavati' has an endurance of 1500 nautical miles and the special features of the ship include an integrated bridge system, integrated machinery control systems and an indigenously built gun mount with fire control systems.

Bharat Electronics-made Akash inducted into Indian Air Force

Defence PSU Bharat Electronics made Akash inducted into Indian Air Force. BEL, the nodal agency and supplies major sub-systems, handed over the missile system. The induction of Akash into the Indian Air Force was marked by the symbolic handing over of the ‘key’ of the weapon system by S K Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director, BEL, to the Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar.

Kalpakkam breeder reactor to go on stream

The 500-MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam, is ready to be commissioned in September, 2015.

It will signal India’s triumphant entry into the second stage of its three-stage nuclear power programme. The PFBR will use plutonium-uranium oxide as fuel and 1,750 tonnes of liquid sodium as coolant. It is called a breeder reactor because it breeds more fuel than it consumes.

Invasive species of snail spotted on Goa varsity campus

The Giant African Land Snail (GALS), listed as one of the world’s 100 most invasive species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, was spotted on the campus of Goa University at Taleigao.

This looks like a silent biological warfare against the local flora... If these snails multiply, there will be a threat to our agro-horticulture and public health since they act as a vector of human diseases like Eosinophilic



meningitis, which is caused by Angiostrongylus cantonensis, a parasite that nematode commonly resides in the pulmonary arteries of rats.

ISRO successfully launches PSLV-C28 carrying 5 UK satellites

Heralding a new era, India launched its heaviest commercial space mission ever with its polar rocket PSLV-C28 successfully putting five British satellites into the intended orbit after a flawless take off from the Satish Dhawan space Centre.

With the overall mass of five satellites being about 1,440 kg, this launch becomes the "heaviest commercial mission" ever undertaken by ISRO and its commercial arm Antrix Corporation.

Sunita Williams among 4 astronauts chosen to fly NASA’s first commercial space vehicle

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams is among four astronauts who have been selected by NASA for commercial flights to the International Space Station (ISS) from US soil.

Sunita Williams, Robert Behnken, Eric Boe and Douglas Hurley will be trained for commercial spaceflights that will return American launches to US soil and further open up low-Earth orbit transportation to the private sector, the US space agency said.

Satellite based navigation system launched

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju launched the GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system, which will offer seamless navigation to the aviation industry. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) developed the system.

India is the fourth country to offer space-based satellite navigation services to the aviation sector. GAGAN will provide augmentation service for the GPS over the country, the Bay of Bengal, South East Asia and Middle East and up to Africa.

Indian Navy's INS Tarangini to compete in annual race in Europe

Indian Navy's sail training ship INS Tarangini will participate in an annual race in European waters and dock at a UK port where its crew will share professional experience with their British counterparts.

INS Tarangini is a three-masted barque, commissioned in 1997 as a sail training ship for the Indian Navy. It was constructed in Goa by British naval architect Colin Mudie and launched in 1995.

INS Teg to provide surveillance support in South Indian Ocean

The Indian Navy has deployed the INS Teg, a stealth frigate, in the South Indian Ocean with an aim to provide surveillance support in the region. During the deployment, the ship will undertake joint patrolling and surveillance operations with the Mauritian National Coast Guard ships.

INS Teg is an advanced version of Talwar class frigates that are in service in the Western Fleet since 2002-04, outfitted with an upgraded-suite of weapons and sensors. Armed with the supersonic Brahmos cruise missiles, Teg is the first ship to have this unique capability on the Western seaboard. The ship built by M/s Yantar Shipyard, Russia, is the first of the three Talwar Class Follow-on ships ordered by the Indian Navy.

IAF leaves for Indo-UK bilateral exercise Indradhanush

The fourth edition of the Indo-UK Bilateral exercise Indradhanush gets underway in the UK on July 21, 2015 with an aim to enhance mutual operational understanding between the two Air Forces. The bilateral air exercise assumes importance in view of the continued engagement of the two countries on defence matters.



Pluto has the youngest surface in our solar system

Nasa's New Horizons probe has discovered a stunning mountain range on Pluto with peaks jutting as high as 11,000 feet above the surface.

The data suggests that the Pluto's surface was formed no more than 100 million years ago - a mere youngster in a 4.56-billion-year-old solar system.

New Horizons also observed the smaller members of the Pluto system, which includes four other moons: Nix, Hydra, Styx and Kerberos.

New Horizons travelled more than three billion miles over a period of nine years to reach the Pluto system.

The first defence park in the nation

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the Union Government has approved the proposal submitted by KINFRA to set up a first defence park at Ottapalam as part of the Make in India-Make in Kerala project. This project comes under the Modified Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (MIIUS).

The project is intended to create a defence park with modern common infrastructure facilities exclusive for the component manufacturers of the defence industry with Central assistance.

India’s 1st indigenously designed and developed High Thrust cryogenic rocket engine tested

India’s first indigenously designed and developed high-thrust cryogenic rocket engine generating a nominal thrust of 19 tonnes was recently hot-tested successfully for endurance at Mahendragiri complex in Tamil Nadu.

The engine will be used for powering India's heaviest rocket under development - the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) Mk-III with a capacity to put into orbit satellites weighing four tons.

The cryogenic engine uses low temperature propellants liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Earth-like planet discovered

NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet, Kepler-452b, in the “habitable zone” around a Sun-like star.

Insat-3D Weather Satellite Completes 2 Years in Orbit: ISRO

INSAT-3D, India's Advanced Weather Satellite, has completed two successful years in orbit.

INSAT-3D is an exclusive mission designed for enhanced meteorological observations and monitoring of land and ocean surfaces for weather forecasting and disaster warning. The satellite was launched by European rocket Ariane VA214 flight from French Guyana on July 26, 2013.

INSAT-3D is the first Indian geostationary satellite, equipped with sounder instrument that provides frequent good quality atmospheric profiles (temperature, humidity) over the Indian land mass and adjoining areas.

Now, listen to Hindi greetings NASA launched into space for aliens on SoundCloud

NASA has uploaded to SoundCloud the recordings of various sounds on Earth that were carried on the two Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, to greet any extraterrestrials that the probes may encounter. Among the sounds selected to represent all of humanity were recordings of rain, a mother and child, stone tools and a heartbeat. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, including Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and others.



Washington DC sinking fast, adding to threat of sea-level rise

Scientists have found that land under the Chesapeake Bay the largest estuary in the US is sinking rapidly and the country's capital, Washington, DC, could drop by six or more inches by 2100 adding to the problems of sea-level rise. The falling land will exacerbate the flooding that Washington, DC, faces from rising ocean waters due to a warming climate and melting ice sheets. For 60 years, tide gauges have shown that sea level in the Chesapeake is rising at twice the global average rate and faster than elsewhere on the East Coast. Geologists have hypothesized for several decades that land in this area, pushed up by the weight of a pre-historic ice sheet to the north, has been settling back down since the ice melted. The new study based on extensive drilling in the coastal plain of Maryland has confirmed this hypothesis, and provides a firm estimate of how quickly this drop is happening.

NASA discovers closest super earth

Astronomers using a NASA telescope have confirmed the discovery of the nearest rocky planet outside our solar system which is larger than Earth and a potential gold mine of science data. Dubbed HD 219134b, the exo planet, which orbits too close to its star to sustain life, is mere 21 light-years away. HD 219134b was determined to a mass 4.5 times that of Earth, and a speedy three-day orbit around its star.



SPORTS World Archery Championships: Deepika Kumari to lead Indian challenge

Deepika Kumari will lead India's challenge in recurve at the forthcoming World Archery Championships to be held in Copenhagen from July 26 to August 2. Laxmi Rani Majhi and Rimil Buriuly are the other two members of the women's squad. The men's team will comprise of Olympians Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar.

The World Championships will provide archers from all over the world their first chance to earn a ticket to next year's Rio Olympics.

Shukla and Akhil shine for India during the 2nd ISSF Junior Cup shooting in Germany

Shivam Shukla won his third gold medal while Akhil Sheoran added silver as India's tally at the ongoing 2nd ISSF Junior Cup shooting tournament in Suhl, Germany.

Abhijeet Gupta wins 19th Commonwealth Chess Championship

Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta won the Commonwealth Chess Championship after settling for a quick draw with Arghyadip Das.

FIFA Women's World Cup 2015: USA crushes Japan 5-2 to win third title

Carli Lloyd became the first woman to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final as she inspired the United States to a 5-2 demolition of defending champions Japan. The United States, winners in 1991 and 1999, became the first nation to win the crown three times.

India retains South Asian Basketball Championship

Defending champions India notched up an emphatic 93-44 win over Sri Lanka in the finals of 4th South Asian Basketball Championship (SABA) at the Kanteerava Stadium.

22-year-old Praneeth Udumalagala and first substitute Thimothi Thineshkanth fought valiantly to keep Sri Lanka's scoreboard ticking. But with India scoring almost twice as quickly (46-26 at halftime) it was a constantly slippery slope for the islanders.

Lewis Hamilton wins 2015 Birtish Grand Prix of F1

Lewis Hamilton won an incident-packed British Grand Prix to claim back-to-back victories on home soil. The world champion finished ahead of Nico Rosberg at a rain-hit Silverstone to extend his lead over his Mercedes team-mate to 17 points in the championship.

The Olympics of arts to come to India

The Delphic Games is to art and culture what the Olympics is to sports. Started a 100 years after the modern edition of the Olympics, the youth edition of the Delphic Games will be hosted in India for the first time, from February 1 to 14, 2016, in Goa.

The Youth Delphic Games are held every four years and are aimed at participants in the age group of 15 to 25. The motto of the 2016 Games is ‘Celebrating Arts and Cultures.’

It will include competitions ranging over six categories — musical arts & sounds, performing arts, language arts, visual arts, social arts and ecological arts & architecture.



India skipper Mithali Raj completes 5000 runs in women's ODIs

Skipper Mithali Raj scripted a new chapter in the history of Indian women's cricket as she became the first from the country and overall second to reach the 5000-run milestone in one-day internationals.

Mithali Raj has represented India in 157 matches and has scored 5029 runs (5 centuries, 37 half-centuries) at an average of 48.82.

Union Sports Ministry constituted Ashwini Nachappa committee to study status of SAI training centers

The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports constituted an eight member committee to study status of Sports Authority of India (SAI) training centers across the country. The committee will be headed by former athlete Ashwini Nachappa and includes Pullela Gopi Chand as a member among others.

The committee was formed against the backdrop of suicide attempt by four girl inmates at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) SAG Water Sports centre at Alappuzha, Kerala in May 2015 that resulted in death of one girl trainee.

The committee was mandated to recommend measures to ensure that such incidents do not occur in future.

Lord Kamlesh Patel becomes first British-Asian appointee to ECB Director

Professor Lord Kamlesh Patel has become the first British Asian to be appointed as Director of England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). He succeeds Lord Morris of Handsworth, who had stepped down after 11 years as an ECB Director.

Sania Mirza seals historic Wimbledon crown with Martina Hingis

India's tennis queen Sania Mirza created history by becoming the first female player from the country to win a women's doubles Grand Slam trophy as she clinched the Wimbledon title with Swiss partner Martina Hingis.

Serena Williams wins Wimbledon to secure another 'Serena Slam'

Serena Williams claimed a sixth Wimbledon title and fourth successive grand slam crown by suppressing the spirited attacking instincts of 20th-seeded Spaniard Garbine Muguruza to win Saturday's final 6-4 6-4.

Williams now holds all four majors at the same time the so-called 'Serena Slam’ having also won the U.S., Australian and French Open titles. Novak Djokovic defeats Roger Federer, wins third Wimbledon title

Defending champion Novak Djokovic won a third Wimbledon title and a ninth Grand Slam, ruthlessly shattering Roger Federer's bid for a record eighth All England Club triumph.

World number one Djokovic won 7-6, (7/1), 6-7 (10/12), 6-4, 6-3 to add this year's Wimbledon title to the Australian Open he captured in January.

Martina Hingis wins Wimbledon mixed doubles for 2 titles in 2 days

Martina Hingis keeps adding to her collection of Wimbledon trophies. The 34-year-old Swiss paired with Leander Paes of India has won the mixed doubles title, beating Alexander Peya and Timea Babos 6-1, 6-1 under the roof on Centre Court.

Hingis became the first player to win both the women's and mixed doubles titles at the All England Club since Cara Black in 2004.



Sumit Nagal wins Wimbledon boys' doubles title

Youngster Sumit Nagal entered the history books as only sixth Indian to win a Grand Slam junior title after winning the boys doubles trophy at the Wimbledon championships with partner Nam Hoang Ly.

Yuki Bhambri was the last Indian to taste success at the top level in junior tennis when he won the Australian Open boys singles title in 2009.

Champions League T20 of Cricket scrapped with immediate effect

The Governing Council of the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) has confirmed that the CLT20 competition will be discontinued with immediate effect. The Governing Council of the CLT20, comprising representatives of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Cricket Australia (CA) made the decision unanimously,”

Shubham Jaglan wins World Junior Golf Championship

Shubham Jaglan beat Australia’s Jeffrey Yu Guan by one stroke to win the World Junior Golf Championship in San Diego, California.

Shubham, who hails from Israna village in Panipat moved to Delhi to improve his game. He had finished second last year and was visibly excited with this victory.

Zach Johnson lifts British Open after thrilling win

Zach Johnson of the United States has won the prestigious British Open Golf title for, 2015. Johnson's second major victory earns him a climb of 13 places up the Official World Golf Rankings from 25th to 12th position. His first major title was the U.S. Masters in 2007.

39-year-old Johnson surged through the field with a closing 66 before overcoming South African Louis Oosthuizen and Australian Marc Leishman in extra holes. Johnson, Leishman and Oosthuizen had ended the regulation 72 holes on 15 under.

Dhoni is world's 9th most marketable athlete, beats Ronaldo, Messi

India's ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has now found place in London School of Marketing's list of most marketable sports persons in the world, ahead of world football superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Earlier, Dhoni was ranked 23rd on the Forbes list of The World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2015, dropping a notch from his ranking of 22 last year.

17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer topped the list, while Tiger Woods was ranked second on the list of most marketable sports persons in the world.

Special Olympics World Summer Games

The 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games open on 25 July 2015 in Los Angeles, California. The 2015 Games will feature competitions in aquatics, gymnastics, track and field, basketball, football (soccer) and many other summer sports involving 6,500 athletes with intellectual disabilities from around the world.

Sebastian Vettel won Hungarian Grand Prix

Germany’s Sebastian Vettel won an emotional Hungarian Grand Prix for Ferrari and the late Jules Bianchi after a crazy race that turned into a rare nightmare for champion Mercedes despite Lewis Hamilton increasing his overall lead.



Vettel dedicated his win to Bianchi, the Marussia driver who died in hospital nine months after suffering severe head injuries at the Japanese Grand Prix, once he had taken the chequered flag.

Roelant Oltmans appointed India hockey coach till Rio Olympics

High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans appointed as coach of the Indian hockey team, replacing Paul van Ass.

The decision to appoint Oltmans was taken at a meeting between Sports Authority of India's director general Injeti Srinivas and Batra.

The 61-year-old Dutchman, who has been associated with Indian hockey for close to three years now, will be at the helm of affairs at least till next year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Tour de France: Chris Froome completes historic British win

Chris Froome became the first Briton to win the Tour de France twice when he safely reached the finish line in Paris at the end of the three-week race.

Froome, who was assured of victory after protecting his race lead on the penultimate stage to the Alpe d'Huez, finished safely at the back of the bunch, linking arms with his Team Sky teammates.

Colombian Nairo Quintana and his Movistar teammate Alejandro Valverde of Spain finished second and third.

CSK, RR owners out of IPL for 2 years

The Justice R.M. Lodha Committee on the Indian Premier League (IPL) betting scandal, appointed by the Supreme Court, suspended India Cements Ltd. (ICL) and Jaipur IPL Cricket Private Ltd. (JIPL) from the League for two years. The ICL owned the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) team when the scandal broke out in 2013. The JIPL owns the Rajasthan Royals team.

Gurunath Meiyappan, CSK official and son-in-law of N. Srinivasan, head of ICL and former BCCI president, was suspended for life “from being involved in any type of cricket matches”. Raj Kundra, former Rajasthan Royals part-owner, was slapped a life ban from “being involved with the BCCI in any type of cricket matches”. They were again separately suspended from participating in the sport of cricket for a maximum five years.



MISCELLANEOUS IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER 1. Nationwide mobile number portability, which will allow customers to keep their existing mobile phone

numbers while shifting between States and circles, will be operational from July 3, 2015.

2. Lending rate for the NBFC-MFIs the quarter beginning July 01, 2015 is fixed at 9.89 %, by Reserve Bank of India.

3. Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who is the current commander of the International Space Station, has set a new record for most time spent in space, with a total of 803 days, Russian space agency said.

4. With eye on huge 2G subscriber base, social media giant Facebook has launched its new lighter version of Android-based mobile app 'Lite' in India that will consume much less space and work in all network conditions.

5. Matti Makkonen, known as the father of SMS after developing the idea of sending messages via mobile networks, has died.

6. China has proposed a trilateral economic corridor with India through Nepal and a railway line linking the three nations via Tibet besides undertaking of joint reconstruction of projects to rebuild quake-hit Nepal.

7. Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of the Indian Conglomerate, Tata Sons has joined Jungle Ventures as a Special Advisor. In his role as Special Advisor, Tata has formally committed to spend time with Jungle’s portfolio of companies to help them build category leadership, while being ethically impregnable and culturally strong, in Asian and global markets.

8. Kerala-based jewellery retailer T S Kalyanaraman is the richest jeweller in India, according to a report by Wealth-X. The report, which published a list of the richest Indian jewellers, said Kalyanaraman — chairman and managing director of the Thrissur-based Kalyan Jewellers — has a personal net worth of $1.3 billion.

9. The Finance Ministry has extended the deadline for declaring undisclosed foreign income or black money till September 30, 2015. Under the new black money law, which has been passed by Parliament and would come into force from April 1, 2016, the penalty would be much higher at 90 per cent, in addition to a 30 per cent tax on undisclosed foreign assets, while such persons would also face criminal prosecution with a jail term of up to ten years.

10. A parliamentary committee headed by firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Yogi Adityanath has recommended 100 percent hike in the salary of parliamentarians. The panel has also recommended increasing the pension of elected representatives from Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000.

11. The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) president K. Govindraj announced has recommended Satnam Singh, the first Indian-born player to earn a spot in an NBA franchise, for the Arjuna Award.

12. With the launch of nationwide mobile number portability (MNP), mobile users can retain their numbers despite changing states/circles across the country, without incurring any roaming charges. Currently, MNP is only available within a state/circle.



13. ICRA has reappointed Naresh Takkar as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for a period of five years. ICRA provides investment information and credit rating services in India.

14. Dr Anup K Pujari IAS joined as Secretary MSME. Before joining the Ministry of MSME, Dr. Pujari was holding the charge of Secretary, Mines.

15. Indian-American professor R. Paul Singh has been named as the 2015 Global Confederation for Higher Education Associations for Agriculture and Life Sciences World Agriculture Prize laureate. The award will be formally presented on September 20, during a ceremony at Nanjing Agricultural University, Jiangsu Province, China.

16. Chandrasekaran Ramakrishnan appointed as CFO of Tata Motors' Group.

17. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognised a record created in Madhya Pradesh on 'World Hand washing Day' on October 15, 2014. According to the official website of Guinness Book, 12,76,425 students created a new world record by washing their hands simultaneously at programmes held by panchayats and rural development departments on the World Hand washing Day at 13,196 different locations across 51 districts in Madhya Pradesh.

18. Seafood exports from the country touched an all time high of Rs 33,441 crore during the last financial year. According to the figures released by the Marine Products Export Development Authority, MPEDA, in Kochi, the marine product exports from India crossed all previous records in quantity, rupee value and dollar terms.

19. Cmde C D Balaji (Retd), Project Director, Light Combat Aircraft (Navy), took over as the Director of Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADA) and Programme Director of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).

20. A Swiss man attempting to circumnavigate the globe with an aircraft powered only by the sun's energy landed in Hawaii, after a record-breaking five-day nonstop solo flight across the Pacific Ocean from Japan. The Solar Impulse 2 is the first aircraft to fly day and night without any fuel. Pilot Andre Borschberg's 120-hour voyage shattered the 76-hour record for nonstop flight by late American adventurer Steve Fossett in 2006 on the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer.

21. 46th International Physics Olympiad, is being hosted by India for the first time since its conception in 1967. It was inaugurated in Mumbai at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).

22. At a time when the government is pushing for 'Make in India', mineral production is estimated to have significantly decreased in 2014-15 compared with 2013-14. Together, 12 major minerals in the fuel and metallic category, under direct control of the Union government, showed an 11 per cent fall. These being coal, lignite, petroleum, natural gas, bauxite, chromite, copper, gold, iron ore, manganese, zinc and lead.

23. London-based steel baron L N Mittal has joined the governing board of St Xavier’s College in Kolkata where from he had done his graduation. Industrialist Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, will also be part of the body as an alumnus. The governing body is the highest decision making



authority of the elite college, which has already been granted autonomous status and the power to award degrees.

24. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during his four-day visit to Russia will participate in the inaugural meeting of the BRICS-backed New Development Bank at Moscow. During the visit, Jaitley will also be participating in the functions on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit at Ufa.

25. Renowned US actress Diana Douglas Webster, ex-wife of actor Kirk Douglas and mother of Michael Douglas, has died of cancer at age 92.

26. Tata Teleservices appoints Anuraag Srivastava as its Chief Financial Officer.

27. Installed power generation capacity in Chhattisgarh touched 16,000 MW in the financial year 2014-15 and achieved the second position, according to a government official.

28. Leading financial services firm Centrum Capital has appointed Sanjiv Bhasin, former head of DBS Bank India, as its managing director and chief executive officer.

29. LIC Nomura Mutual Fund AMC today named Sarojini Dikhale as new chief executive officer -- the only woman leading an Asset Management Company in the country.

30. Twitter India has appointed Mahima Kaul its Public Policy head.

31. There are 350 personnel officiating this year at Wimbledon, but one of them catches attention instantaneously. She's Aseel Shaheen – the first Arab woman to be appointed as an official for the prestigious Wimbledon Grand Slam.

32. The Dharwad-headquartered Karnataka Vikas Grameen Bank (KVGB) has launched ‘ATM-on-wheels’ service (a van with ATM) for its customers. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has given financial assistance for the facility.

33. The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) the government company tasked to promote renewable energy has launched a new loan scheme in order to promote rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) power projects. The scheme will provide loans at the interest rate of 9.9 to 10.75 per cent to the system aggregators and the developers.

34. Axis Bank, the country's third largest private sector lender, has now allowed its iPhone customers to transact using their fingertips.

35. National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) launched a mobile application that will recommend a balanced diet for cows and buffaloes to help boost dairy farmers' income by raising milk yield and cutting feed cost. The mobile application, named 'Pashu Poshan', was launched by the Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.

36. The world's oldest man Sakari Momoi, a retired educator from Japan, has died at the age of 112. Momoi was certified by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest man in August 2014, when he was 111.



37. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched maiden drilling by ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) in the Satpayev oil block of Kazakhstan where the Indian firm is investing USD 400 million.

38. Senior Indian Railways Service Officer Arun Saxena took over as the General Manager of the North Central Railway zone.

39. Bharti Enterprises has appointed Rahul Bhatnagar as MD and chief financial officer.

40. Rag pickers’ services will now be recognized by the government. It has decided to give national award for their contribution to keep India clean. The national award, with a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh, will be given to three best rag pickers.

41. Drugmaker Cipla has announced the appointment of Samina Vaziralli as Executive Director on its board from July 10, 2015.

42. Vodafone India has entered into a strategic tie-up with Walmart India to enable payments using its mobile payments service, M-Pesa. The partnership with Walmart India gives all its members, including small businesses such as kiranas/resellers, the benefit of sending money through their mobile phones.

43. Credit Information Bureau India (Cibil) has appointed Satish Pillai as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

44. Telecom giant Bharti Airtel launched a cross-border money transfer service for its mobile wallet customers in Niger, a first in the country by a telecom company.

45. Professor Lord Kamlesh Patel of Bradford, has become the first British Asian to join the England and Wales Cricket Board.

46. Union Government has appointed a private sector executive Sriram Kalyanaraman as Managing Director and CEO of National Housing Bank.

47. Inderjeet Singh became first Indian to win a Gold Medal at World University Games in Gwangju.

48. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) got an accreditation from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) - a global multilateral fund that is meant to assist developing and poor countries in taking up their respective mitigation and adaptation measures to fight climate change. Nabard, the national financial institution will act as a channel through which the GCF will deploy its resources in India.

49. Prince Saud al-Faisal, who has died aged 75, was the world’s longest-serving foreign minister, representing the oil rich Gulf state of Saudi Arabia for 40 years, from 1975 until his retirement for health reasons in April.

50. ‘World Population Day’ observed with theme Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies.

51. Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha has left on a four-day visit to South Africa, during which he will hold talks with senior military leadership there and discuss a wide range of issues on enhancing bilateral defence ties.



52. Private equity firm Saif Partners has appointed Alok Goel, former CEO of FreeCharge and among India's top executives in consumer internet sector, as managing director.

53. In a bid to encourage more sellers join their online channels, e-commerce majors including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and eBay are tying up with non-banking lenders for extending loans to those keen to sell products through these online marketplaces.

54. With cooperation and support of Centre, the Andhra Pradesh government is going to establish an 'Energy University' with focus on research orientation and development of energy efficiency, energy conservation, and renewable sources.

55. Kishore Biyani-led Big Bazar and mobile payments platform MobiKwik has inked an exclusive tie-up to allow the retail firm's customers to pay for purchases using mobile wallet facility.

56. A two-member team from IIT-Kharagpur has bagged the top slot at an international green competition in Paris with an innovative technology to conserve electricity by auctioning units. Over 12500 innovators from 168 countries had participated in the 'Go Green in the City', an annual competition, this year.

57. The app, 'Elec-Tra', according to the innovators, architecture student Mohamad Meraj Shaikh and biotech-biochemical engineer Spoorthy Kotla, "helps you buy and sell electricity".

58. Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari announced seven new national highways (NHs) for Odisha, totaling 1260 km.

59. Top-seeded Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa (both Tamil Nadu) bagged the men’s and women’s titles respectively at the 63rd National senior squash championship that concluded at the Squash Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

60. ‘Buddha in a Traffic Jam’ wins best original screenplay award at the Madrid Film Festival.

61. Greece reached a desperately needed bailout deal with the Eurozone in a historic agreement to prevent the country crashing out of the European single currency.

62. After the success of all-women cab network ‘She-Taxi’, the Gender Park in Kerala, a state-owned autonomous institution, is now getting ready to launch ‘She-Bus’, driven and managed exclusively by women for women.

63. India will be one of the 13 countries to host the launch of Windows 10, the latest version of the popular operating system (OS), by global giant Microsoft on July 29, 2015.

64. China has set up the world's largest cancer registry system that will cover over 300 million people in a bid to fight the deadly disease with evidence-based and more-targeted intervention programmes.

65. The foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) cleared 23 FDI proposals including those of Bandhan Financial Services and Catholic Syrian Bank. The FIPB can recommend foreign investment proposals worth up to Rs 3,000 crore to the Finance Minister for approval. Proposals worth above that is referred to CCEA.



66. Official air quality data for the first half of this year shows that Delhi indeed face high levels of pollution but Kanpur, Varanasi and Chennai are worse in terms of air pollution.

67. M.S. Viswanathan the king of melody has died at the age of 88. The veteran musician had composed music for over a thousand films in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam and was fondly called as the King of Light Music.

68. The Laser National sailing championship, the country’s biggest inland event also known as the Hyderabad Sailing Week will be held at the Hussain Sagar from July 15 to 19, 2015.

69. Ahead of the Prime Minister’s launch of the Skill India Mission, the Railways has tied up with the Ministry of Skill Development to offer ‘sparable’ space for training in its infrastructure, such as wayside stations, railway training centers, railway schools and institutes.

70. The Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) in collaboration with Facebook has launched ‘#100Women Initiative’, a contest to select 100 women achievers of India through public nominations via social media.

71. YES Bank has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India to set up IFSC Banking Units (IBUs) in Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City. It will also allow the bank to raise foreign currency funding through medium term notes (MTNs) and other routes as appropriate.

72. Global financial services hub Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) has appointed Ajay Kumar Pandey as its new Managing Director and Group CEO.

73. Scientists working at the world's biggest atom smasher at CERN said that they have discovered a new kind of particle called "pentaquarks”.

74. Madhya Pradesh government has appointed former Chief Secretary Rakesh Sahni as the Chairman of Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA).

75. Noted artist Sayed Haider Raza conferred with highest French Civilian Award Commandeur de la Lgion dHonneur on the occasion of the French National Day celebrations on 14th July, 2015. la Lgion dHonneur (the Legion of Honour) is the highest civilian award given by the French Republic for outstanding service to France, regardless of the nationality of the recipients.

76. Sanjeev Kapur is the new chief marketing officer (CMO) of Citibank in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa. He will lead regional and country marketing teams across 17 countries in these regions.

77. The Reserve Bank has set up a 14-member panel, to be headed by RBI executive director Deepak Mohanty to work out a five-year action plan to spread the reach of financial services to unbanked population.

78. Adding more momentum in the area of defense product manufacturing under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, American aerospace and defense major Boeing has signed a framework agreement with Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. (TASL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, to collaborate in aerospace and defense manufacturing.



79. The Home Ministry has cleared a proposal of Chinese telecom giant Huawei to set up a manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu with riders like appointment of Indians to key posts of chief of technical operations and chief security officer.

80. Telangana will soon be the first State in the country to make its IT and ITES buildings differently abled-friendly. In a first-of-its-kind initiative undertaken by the NASSCOM Foundation, 175 companies based out of two IT parks in Hyderabad will go for retrofitting their buildings to suit the needs of differently abled employees.

81. E-commerce major Snapdeal.com re-launched a new mobile-based platform, Shopo, targeting micro, small and medium enterprises and making it possible for even individuals to sell their products be it used goods or a spare movie ticket or a handcraft item. Snapdeal had acquired Shopo in 2013.

82. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given approval for the development of six-laning of Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

83. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the creation of an intra-State transmission system in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan at an estimated cost of Rs. 8,548.68 crore. Creation of an intra-State transmission system will facilitate evacuation of renewable power from generation stations to load centres.

84. Punjab became the first state to operationalize 117-megawatt solar power projects following inauguration of 10.50-MW solar power plant at Sangatpura village near Lehragaga town of Sangrur district.

85. Prashant Pathrabe, former head of the National Film Archives of India will be the new chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

86. An Indian American woman Ms Sunita Viswanath is among 12 faith leaders to be honoured as "Champions of Change" by the White House for their efforts in protecting environment and communities from the effects of climate change.

87. Ahmed Kathrada, South Africa's Indian-origin freedom struggle veteran and confidante of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, has been knighted by the French government for his lifelong service to the community. The award is part of the National Orders of the Legion of Honour established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802.

88. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has greeted the Kutchi community on Ashadhi Bij, the Kutchi New Year on 18th July, 2015.

89. As ‘Bonalu’ has been declared as the State festival by the Telangana government. It has announced that total expenditure of the ‘Bonalu’ festivities will be officially borne by the state government.

90. Hindustan group of institutions recently won three national level awards at a corporate summit organised by All India Technical and Management Council (AITMC). While Hindustan University was chosen as Best Private University of the Year, the award for Best Placements and Career building and



the award for Best International School were given to KCG college of Technology and Hindustan International School respectively.

91. The Visakh White Oil Terminal of HPCL has become the first location in the country to launch bio-diesel product for the own vehicles of the company, as part of its efforts to promote green initiative.

92. Angel investors smile big in 2015, pump in $14.67 mn. Angel investment refers to funding from affluent entrepreneurs who are among the first to invest in a start-up in exchange of convertible debt or ownership equity.

93. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has paid tributes to Madiba on Nelson Mandela Day. Nelson Mandela International Day (or Mandela Day) is an annual international day in honour of Nelson Mandela, celebrated each year on 18 July, Mandela's birthday. The day was officially declared by the United Nations in November 2009, with the first UN Mandela Day held on 18 July 2010.

94. National Crime Records Bureau’s latest data for 2014, the Bangalore city occupies a position of most unsafe for pedestrians as the urban area with the most pedestrian deaths.

95. Nilgiris Mountain Railway (NMR) successfully completed its 10 years as one of the World Heritage site. The NMR got the Heritage Status on July 15, 2005 at Durban in Africa.

96. An Indian-origin doctor Shiv Pande has received the honorary fellowship by one of the leading British Universities for his contribution to the community as a general practitioner and medical educator.

97. France’s Amelie Mauresmo, a two-time Grand Slam winner and former world number one, was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

98. The US has launched its newest littoral combat ship, ideal for missions in shallow waters around the Pacific Rim, where the US Navy is increasing its presence as it keeps an eye on China, which is expanding its naval forces in the strategic South China Sea.

99. Daggubati Suresh Babu has been unanimously elected the president of Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC).

100. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 46th Session of Indian labour Conference, also called the 'Labour Parliament', in New Delhi on 20th July, 2015.

101. Taiwan’s top two political parties have each nominated a woman for President in 2016, a historic first signalling acceptance of female leadership. The ruling Nationalist Party picked as its candidate Hung Hsiu-chu, a former teacher and the current deputy legislative speaker.

102. According to data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) as many as 1.31 lakh persons committed suicide across the country last year, with Maharashtra having the highest number of cases in any state. Among major cities, Chennai topped the list. Maharashtra had 16,307 suicide cases in 2014, followed by 16,122 cases in Tamil Nadu and 14,310 cases in West Bengal.

103. Snapdeal has tied-up with Tata Capital. Now Snapdeal's merchants and online merchants can get a loan from Tata Capital for anywhere between Rs 5 lakh to 2 crore.



104. Delhi Metro has launched a smart card recharge facility at ICICI Bank's Business Correspondent Networks (outlets) across the national capital.

105. Diplomats from the G20 group of countries will be meeting in Ankara, Turkey, on July 27-28 to discuss climate change finance which is meant to stitch together a new global agreement under the United Nations (UN) Climate Convention.

106. Gomti, which is considered to be the lifeline of Lucknow and for its citizens, is now in grip of Arsenic contamination, the level of Arsenic toxicity in this river exceeds twice the permissible limit set by the World Health Organisation (0.01 mg/litre).

107. Swati Maliwal, wife of Aam Aadmi Party leader Naveen Jaihind, took charge as Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW). Maliwal, an RTI activist, succeeds Barkha Singh.

108. Alex Rocco, the US actor best known for his role in crime drama The Godfather, has died of cancer aged 79.

109. Noted Urdu fiction writer Dr Bisheshar Pradeep passed away, at the age of 80 Years. He was best known for his fiction writing "Afsana Nigari". He was awarded with "Urdu Hindi Sahitya Akademi Award" for his work and also won a national level award for his book "Surkh Gulab".

110. Stephen Hawkings, British physicist on 20 July 2015 launches $100 million search for aliens.

111. In a significant step for the country’s ‘Make in India’ programme, Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company (PDOC) signed an agreement with JSC Ship Repairing Centre Zvyozdochka, Russia, for Medium Refits and Life Certification of 877 EKM Submarines in India.

112. The Board for Control of Cricket in India on 21 July, 2015 announced that the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata will host the World Twenty20 final in April, 2016.

113. Fashion and lifestyle m-commerce platform Myntra has appointed an external candidate, Ananth Narayanan, as Chief Executive Officer.

114. Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the proposal for restructuring the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) project, which is aimed at protecting and conserving the coastal environment.

115. Pamarthy Shankar, a cartoonist working with the prominent Telugu newspaper 'Sakshi', has won the Grand Prix World Press Cartoon 2014 Award for sketching Nelson Mandela. The World Press Cartoon awards are presented in three categories every year, namely general, caricature and political.

116. India and Singapore has signed an agreement on sharing white-shipping information to enhance maritime cooperation between the two navies. White-shipping refers to commercial shipping information about movement of cargo ships.

117. Naomi Klein has won the American Book Awards, for the environmental work “This Changes Everything Capitalism vs. The Climate”.



118. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the government’s flagship Deendayal Upadhyaya Rural Electrification Programme on July 25 in Patna. The Rs. 43,033-crore rural electrification scheme, will replace the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).

119. The Himachal Pradesh High Court has imposed a complete ban on all types of buffalo and bull fights in the hill State, stating that it is against the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960.

120. Tom Moore, the “Archie” cartoonist who brought to life the escapades of the freckled-face, red-haired character, has died in Texas. He was 86.

121. Nischal Narayanam is one of National Geographic India’s accredited “7 brilliant brains of the world”. He claimed to be the youngest to qualify for the CA final exam in India.

122. L'Oreal India has become India's first and only company to receive the Economic Dividends for Gender Equality certification (EDGE), the only business certification for gender equality applicable universally across industries and geographies.

123. The Andhra Pradesh government has come up with a novel scheme to keep beggars away from the crowded ghats where Godavari Pushkaralu is now being held. Beggers can take home Rs 5,000 as compensation for loss of income.

124. EL Doctorow, critically acclaimed author of the novels Ragtime and Billy Bathgate, has died aged 84 in a New York.

125. 50-year old Milind Somanmade, made the country proud by successfully completing the Ironman Triathlon held in Zurich. The triathlon is considered one of the world's toughest races and had 2,000 participants which included seven Indians.

126. Parineeti Chopra was appointed as the brand ambassador of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao: Call to Action campaign, which was launched by the Haryana government in Gurgaon.

127. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited Director (Commercial) T.K. Chand has been appointed Chairman-cum-Managing Director of National Aluminium Company Ltd. (NALCO). The NALCO is a Bhubaneswar-headquartered public sector company with integrated and diversified operations in mining, metal and power.

128. The merger process of the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) with Sebi will be completed by September this year, said U K Sinha, chairman of the capital market regulator. After the completion of the merger, Sebi would work on commodity derivatives.

129. State-run power equipment maker BHEL has signed three agreements with Kazakh companies during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to the country.

130. T K Chand has been appointed as the new chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of National Aluminium Company (Nalco). He will take up his new position on Monday, July 27, 2015.

131. “Jurassic World” is now the third highest-grossing film in history, behind only James Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic. The dinosaur thriller has racked up $1.52 billion, pushing it past.



132. The world's first malaria vaccine named Mosquirix, was given the green light by London-based European Medicines Agency after more than 30 years of research.

133. Reliance Communications (RCom) has appointed Braham Singh as Senior Vice President, Global Product Management of RCom Enterprise and Global Cloud Xchange (GCX).

134. K Sanath Kumar, Director and General Manager, New India Assurance (NIA), has been shifted to GIC Re in the same capacity. GIC Re is sole reinsurance firm in the Indian insurance market.

135. The Indian FMCG major Dabur is now extending its popular digestive brand Hajmola into the ready-to-drink beverage category. The new drink brand christened Hajmola Yoodley is set to be launched in six Indian flavours.

136. Swiss food group Nestle has appointed Suresh Narayanan as new Nestle India MD after Maggi scare that forced it to withdraw its popular instant noodles.

137. Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented Gargi Parsai with the prestigious Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) award for excellence in Journalism in Agricultural Research and Development-2014.

138. The board of directors of Catholic Syrian Bank has appointed Anand Krishnamurthy as the new Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Syrian Bank.

139. Murali Narayana Dulla, an octogenarian, has embarked on a huge task of bring out an encyclopaedia of physics in the Telugu language to help students and scholars to break the language barrier to explore the depth of the subject.

140. Historian Ramachandra Guha has been awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in the academic category.

141. The Prize, established in 1990 by the Japanese city of Fukuoka, recognizes outstanding achievements by individuals or groups in preserving and creating the unique and diverse cultures of Asia.

142. The Centenary Year Celebrations of FKCCI will be inaugurated by Pranab Mukherjee, President of India. The Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FKCCI), which successfully liaises between the business community and the governments, is entering its 100th year of service. The chamber was started in 1915 by Bharath Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya to industrialise the then Mysore State.

143. The Centre has sanctioned �1,000 crore for laying 15-km long tracks to connect Indian Railways with Bangladesh through the north-east.

144. Six times Lok Sabha member and former union minister Bijoy Krishna Handique (81) passed away at the Jorhat Medical College Hospital following brief illness.

145. Eminent physicist P. Hariharan died in Berkeley, California. He was 89. Hariharan had contributed in various researches including in the design of a new 3-beam interferometer, first practical radial-shear interferometer and double passed Fabry-Perot interferometer.



146. Bengaluru-based concert pianist Neecia Majolly has won the Global Music Award for her debut single Dark Room. It has won the award in the “Emerging Global Artist” category.

147. After committing to develop Chabahar port in Iran, India Government has set its eyes on developing the Payra port in Bangladesh. Building foreign ports is part of a new manoeuvre, for thwarting China’s growing influence in the region. The Payra port is located in Patuakhali district of Southern Bangladesh, on the Bay of Bengal.

148. Qualcomm Incorporated has appointed former BlackBerry India head Sunil Lalvani as vice president and president of Qualcomm India.

149. IT hub Bengaluru tops the list of cities in terms of online visa applications, with 22 per cent contribution, followed by Mumbai and Delhi, according to a survey by travel firm Thomas Cook (India).

150. Ashok Kumar Balyan, former chief executive of Petronet LNG Ltd, has joined Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group as CEO of its Oil & Gas Business.

151. ACE Group Architects has bagged the best institutional architecture award in the second BERG Real Estate Awards in Singapore for designing the Redbridge International Academy, Bengaluru.

152. Bengaluru has the youngest startup ecosystem in the world, with the average founder's age at 28.5 years, according to a survey of the top 20 global startup ecosystems.

153. Market regulator SEBI has cancelled the registration of Sahara Mutual Fund saying it was no longer 'fit and proper' to carry out this business and ordered transfer of its operations to another fund house.

154. Online marketplace Snapdeal announced the appointment of Amit Maheshwari as CEO of Exclusively, an e-tailer of premium fashion that it acquired recently for an undisclosed sum.

155. Rajesh Exports Limited gold jewellery company had recently acquired world’s largest precious metals refining company ‘Valcambi’.

156. HIV researcher Dr Suniti Solomon, the first to bring to the world the prevalence of the infection in India in 1986 and one who successfully led research into the treatment of the deadly virus, passed away at her residence in Chennai. She was 76

157. Bengaluru will become the first city to have online police verification process for passports with its launch in November, 2015 as part of a country-wide project that will cut down the time required for issuing the travel document from a month at present to just a week.



Question Bank 1. Which among the following known as the father of SMS after developing the idea of sending messages

via mobile networks, has died recently? (a) Vasili Lazarev (b) Matti Makkonen (c) Leonid Kizim (d) Leonid Popov

2. India has given clearance to which of the following neighboring countries to open its fifth diplomatic mission in Guwahati?

(a) Bangladesh (b) Myanmar (c) Bhutan (d) Nepal

3. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the 'Digital India Week' in the national capital on 1 July, 2015. Which among the following will be is the nodal agency to implement the programme?

(a) Department of Electronics and Information Technology (b) Department of Telecommunication (c) Home Ministry (d) Ministry of Communications and IT

4. E-commerce major Flipkart the only Indian brand has been ranked at which of the following position among top book sellers of the world, according to a survey report of Top 40 Global Bookstore Mind Share (BMS Index)?

(a) First (b) Second (c) Fifth (d) Tenth 5. According to the recent survey, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel has come at which of the following position

among the world's largest mobile operator in terms of number of subscribers (a) First (b) Third (c) Seventh (d) Tenth 6. Infrastructure financing firm IDFC has appointed which among the following as independent director of

the company? (a) Ravi Puri (b) Shashi Kant Mishra (c) Vinod Rai (d) Gautam Maheswari

7. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently nominated female member to the nine-member bench of Supreme Court of Afghanistan. Which among the following is the nominated female member?

(a) Fatema Akbari (b) Roya Mahboob (c) Sima Samar (d) Anisa Rasouli

8. Which among the following cosmonaut has recently set a new record for most time spent in space, with a total of 803 days?

(a) Yuri Artyukhin (b) Gennady Padalka (c) Anatoly Berezovoy (d) Lev Dyomin

9. The United States and which of the following other countries have agreed to reopen embassies after ending decade long cold war among them?

(a) Cuba (b) Afghanistan (c) Syria (d) Iraq

10. Output of the eight core infrastructure sectors increased in May 2015, the fastest in six months. Which among the following industry does not come under the eight Core industries category?

(a) Cement (b) Crude Oil (c) Fertilizers (d) Textile Industry



11. BHEL has recently executed the 500 MW, oil-fired Kosti thermal power project on an engineering,

procurement and construction basis in which of the following countries? (a) Egypt (b) DR Congo (c) South Sudan (d) Sudan 12. Which among the following has recently won the Commonwealth Chess Championship? (a) S.P. Sethuraman (b) Baskaran Adhiban (c) Abhijeet Gupta (d) Surya Shekhar Ganguly 13. According to a report by Wealth-X, which among the following is the richest jeweler in India? (a) B Govindan (b) T S Kalyanaraman (c) Nirav Modi (d) M P Ahammed 14. Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of the Indian Conglomerate, Tata Sons has recently joined which of the

following Ventures as a Special Advisor? (a) Junglee (b) Amazon (c) Flipkart (d) Snap Deal 15. To capitalize on the business opportunities of the booming e-commerce and m-commerce ecosystem,

which among the following banks has recently partnered with online travel company MakeMyTrip.com? (a) Axis Bank (b) YES Bank (c) Punjab National Bank (d) State Bank of India 16. The K.K. Birla Foundation has recently announced which among the following for the G.D. Birla Award for

Scientific Research for 2014? (a) Sanjeev Galande (b) Subhasis Chaudhuri (c) Biman Bagchi (d) Arjun M. Jayannvar 17. The World Health Organization has recently announced which of the following nations that has become

the first country in the world to stamp out transmission of HIV and syphilis from a mother to her child? (a) Indonesia (b) Syria (c) Cyprus (d) Cuba 18. Which among the following International organizations has approved an additional loan of $650 million for

the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) of India? (a) Asian development bank (b) The World Bank (c) Asian infrastructure investment bank (d) IMF 19. On 1 July, 2015 in New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Digital India program. It

consists of which of the following initiatives? (a) Next Generation Network (NGN) (b) Wi-Fi hotspots (c) Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) app (d) All of the above 20. A parliamentary committee has recently recommended 100 percent hike in the salary of parliamentarians,

who among the following is head of the committee? (a) Ram Niwas Mishra (b) MP Yogi Adityanath (c) P.C. Rao (d) B. Shankaranand



21. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar recently launched which of the following new automation software for Indian Army which would provide them easy access to their service records?

(a) ARPAN 3.0 (b) DARPAN 1.0 (c) HRM 2.0 (d) HRAN 1.0 22. Who among the following Indian-American professor has been named as the 2015 Global Confederation

for Higher Education Associations for Agriculture and Life Sciences World Agriculture Prize laureate? (a) Harsh Verma (b) R. Paul Singh (c) Santosh Kumar Gangwal (d) Piyush Goyal 23. Union Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh launched an online mobile application for

better planning of Panchayat assets. What is the name of the App? (a) PRI- asset (b) m-asset (c) PRI mitra (d) ePRI- sewa 24. To make Indian currency less prone to counterfeiting, RBI has started printing Rs 100 notes on which the

last six numerals of the nine-digit currency note number will be in: (a) Ascending print size from left to right (b) Descending print size from left to right. (c) Ascending print size from right to left (d) Descending print size from right to left 25. Who among the following has been named as the winner of the 2015 World Food Prize for helping more

than 150 million people out of poverty? (a) Giriraj Singh (b) Giriraj Singh (c) Fazle Hasan Abed (d) Kiren Rijiju 26. The United Nations has declared its highest-level humanitarian emergency in which of the following

Nations? (a) Syria (b) Yemen (c) Iraq (d) South Sudan 27. Which of the following Indian-American among math, science teachers honored by US President Barack

Obama recently? (a) Jayant Sinha (b) Vishnu Deo (c) Raosaheb Dadarao (d) Darshan Jain 28. Which among the following has recently joined as Secretary of Ministry of Micro Small and Medium

Enterprises (MSME)? (a) Vijay Sinha (b) Ramshankar Kumar (c) Anup K Pujari (d) Sudarshan Bhagat 29. As per the data released by the World Bank in Washington on 2 July 2015, Indian economy crossed

which landmark figure during 2014? (a) $2-trillion (b) $3-trillion (c) $5-trillion (d) $10-trillion 30. The portal Electronic Projects Management System (ePMS) was launched under Digital India Week, on

02nd July 2015 in which of the following states? (a) Haryana (b) Himachal Pradesh (c) Punjab (d) Maharshtra



31. According to the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC) report released 3 July, 2015 which among the following performs the best in terms of percentage of its rural population that has completed graduate studies?

(a) Kerala (b) Delhi (c) Lakshadweep (d) Rajasthan 32. The country's largest lender State Bank of India launched which of the following projects to provide

doorstep services and expedite home loan application process? (a) Project Dwar (b) Tatkal Sewa (c) Project Tatkal (d) Project Raftar 33. Ratan Tata-led Tata Trust has tied up with which of the following under the joint initiative, called Internet

Saathi, to educate rural women about the internet? (a) Google India (b) Ask Me (c) Digicorp (d) Info Edge (India) 34. Which of the following banks has become the first bank in India to launch Watch Banking for Apple

Watch? (a) SBI (b) HDFC (c) PNB (d) ICICI 35. India has renewed the existing MoU on hydrographic cooperation for the next five years with which of the

following countries? (a) China (b) Norway (c) Mauritius (d) Russia 36. Which among the following states has won appreciation in the country for works in the health sector

under National Health Mission by winning first prize? (a) Bihar (b) Madhya Pradesh (c) Karnataka (d) Goa 37. Which of the following Mobile operators has launched a pre-paid card linked mobile wallet service which

would allow its customers to transfer money, pay for services as well as withdraw cash of up to Rs. 1 lakh?

(a) Vodaphone (b) Airtel (c) MTNL (d) BSNL 38. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognised a record created on 'World Hand washing Day' on

October 15, 2014 in which of the following states of India? (a) Gujarat (b) Madhya Pradesh (c) Himachal Pradesh (d) Maharashtra 39. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently launched the Jeevan Pramaan scheme. It is an Aadhaar-

based digital life certificate for which of the following beneficiaries? (a) Pensioners (b) Old persons from unorganized sector (c) Old age women (d) Old age women from unorganized sector 40. Which among the following has become the first solar aircraft to fly day and night for 120-hour without

any fuel? (a) Solar voyage (b) Solar flight (c) Solar Impulse 2 (d) Solar Impulse 1



41. Which among the following countries has declared state of emergency on 5 July 2015 after beach attack?

(a) Kuwait (b) France (c) Tunisia (d) Syria

42. Which among the following countries team has won FIFA Women's Football World Cup 2015 on 5 July? (a) Australia (b) The United States of America (c) Germany (d) Netherland

43. Indian Army has launched "Operation Shiva" to ensure smooth conduct of which of the following pilgrimages yatra?

(a) 84-Kosi Yatra (b) Kavad Yatra (c) Mansarovar Yatra (d) Amarnath yatra

44. 46th International Physics Olympiad, is being hosted by which of the following countries for the first time since its conception in 1967?

(a) India (b) Bulgaria (c) Japan (d) Israel

45. Which among the following countries team has won the Copa America title for the first time in its history? (a) Brazil (b) Argentina (c) Uruguay (d) Chile 46. In a bid to check frauds and multiple claims setting up of a centralized database of clients is planned by

the life insurance industry. Who among the following is the secretary general of the Life Insurance Council?

(a) Rajiv Mehrishi (b) V. Manickam (c) Hasmukh Adhia (d) Manjari Kackar 47. Which among the following has been awarded as the International Indian of the Year for 2014-15 for his

outstanding achievements in the fields of business and education? (a) Ravinder Singh Gidar (b) Uma Wadhwani (c) Lord Karan Bilimoria (d) Nalin Pandey 48. Which among the following states of India has the highest percentage of manual scavenger, according to

the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011? (a) Mizoram (b) Tripura (c) Arunachal Pradesh (d) Sikkim 49. In ISRO's biggest ever commercial mission, On July 10, 2015 it will be launching five satellites of which of

the following countries? (a) Britain (b) Israel (c) Canada (d) France 50. Which among the following states of India has the highest percentage of legally released bonded labour

according to the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011? (a) West Bengal (b) Tripura (c) Arunachal Pradesh (d) Bihar 51. Eminent Pakistani Urdu novelist Abdullah Hussain who authored the bestseller and critically-acclaimed

Udas Naslain passed away recently. He belongs to which of the following countries? (a) Pakistan (b) India (c) Afghanistan (d) Bangladesh



52. Which among the following is the first bank to launch the MUDRA card based on the RuPay platform? (a) Punjab National Bank (b) Corporation Bank (c) State bank of India (d) ICICI Bank 53. Which among the following has become the first State transport corporation to have a vehicle tracking

system for inter-city buses? (a) Punjab (b) Haryana (c) Maharashtra (d) Uttar Pradesh

54. India has won 4th South Asian Basketball Championship (SABA) at the Kanteerava Stadium by defeating which among the following countries team?

(a) China (b) Nepal (c) Sri Lanka (d) Thailand

55. Which of the following places of France has been recently recognized by UNESCO 'World Heritage' sites?

(a) Centre Pompidou-Metz (b) Champagne vineyards (c) Loire Valley (d) French Railway Museum

56. With an aim of conserving college campuses which are more than 100 years old, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has granted "heritage" status to how many institutions?

(a) 10 institutions (b) 15 institutions (c) 19 institutions (d) 20 institutions

57. Which among the following became the first woman to score a hat-trick in a final match in FIFA Women's World Cup 2015?

(a) Homare Sawa (b) Carli Lloyd (c) Birgit Prinz (d) Christie Rampone

58. Which among the following colleges has received maximum grants of Rs 4.35 crore for conservation of its heritage building by UGC?

(a) Christ Church College of Kanpur (b) St Bede's College of Shimla (c) St Joseph College of Trichy (d) Cotton College of Guwahati 59. According to the Socio Economic and Caste Census, 2011, nearly what percentage of rural households

in India still do not have access to a phone, whether landline or mobile? (a) 20 per cent (b) 25 per cent (c) 28 per cent (d) 35 per cent 60. Who among the following Formula One racing driver has won British Grand Prix, 2015? (a) Kimi Raikkonen (b) Lewis Hamilton (c) Sebastian Vettel. (d) Nico Rosberg 61. Japanese multinational telecom company, SoftBank has expressed its readiness to establish an

ambitious 20 Gigawatt solar power plant in which of the following states in India? (a) Maharashtra (b) Gujarat (c) Andhra Pradesh (d) Rajasthan 62. Which among the following places in India will host the XIIth International Symposium on Antarctic Earth

Sciences (ISAES), for the first time? (a) Chandigarh (b) Goa (c) Mumbai (d) New Delhi



63. Which among the following has been nominated by China as its choice to head the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank?

(a) Le Luong Minh (b) Habib Ben Yahia (c) Margaret Chan (d) Jin Liqun 64. Software major Microsoft has entered in to an agreement with which of the following states in India to

develop 'digital villages'? (a) Manipur (b) Madhya Pradesh (c) Maharashtra (d) Arunachal Pradesh 65. According to the report by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), what percentage of India's

population sought information under the RTI Act in 2014? (a) 0.41 per cent (b) 1.0 per cent (c) 2 per cent (d) 5.0 per cent 66. The government of which of the following states has entered into collaboration with Microsoft India to

launch 'Smart Classroom' programme in the state? (a) West Bengal (b) Sikkim (c) Manipur (d) Meghalaya 67. Who among the following has been recently became the first-ever Arab woman to officiate at

Wimbledon? (a) Khaleda Zia (b) Aseel Shaheen (c) Zoubir Bouchikhi (d) Rabita Baku 68. Installed power generation capacity in which of the following states touched 16,000 MW in the financial

year 2014-15 and achieved the second position? (a) Gujarat (b) Madhya Pradesh (c) Punjab (d) Chhattisgarh 69. According to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) report, which of the following is the only

state in which RTI applicants belonging to Scheduled Castes nearly doubled in a year 2014? (a) Tripura (b) Nagaland (c) Chhattisgarh (d) Manipur 70. According to the Rapid Survey on Children (RSOC) conducted by the UNICEF, which among the

following state is not including in the list of states which have successfully reduced the proportion of underweight adolescent girls?

(a) Bihar (b) Tripura (c) Uttarakhand (d) Tamil Nadu 71. The World Bank has ranked which of the following schemes launched by Government of India as the

world's largest public works one, providing social security net to 15 per cent of the country's population? (a) National Literacy Mission Programme (b) Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (c) MNREGA (d) National Social Assistance Scheme 72. The government of India has increased minimum wage across the country to what amount a day from Rs

137 with effect from 1 July, 2015? (a) Rs 150 (b) Rs 160 (c) Rs 170 (d) Rs 200



73. State government of which of the following states has signed a MoU with International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) to promote IT-based information for farmers in July, 2015?

(a) Telangana (b) Rajasthan (c) Haryana (d) Punjab 74. Who among the following has become the first women from the country and overall second to reach the

5000-run milestone in one-day internationals? (a) Ujwala Nikam (b) Anjali Sharma (c) Sharmila Chakraborty (d) Mithali Raj 75. The youth edition of the Delphic Games will be hosted in India for the first time, from February 1 to 14,

2016, in which of the following places? (a) Goa (b) New Delhi (c) Hyderabad (d) Chandigarh 76. After Bank of Maharashtra which of the following other banks has signed an agreement with Mudra Bank

for refinancing of loans given to small enterprises in July, 2015? (a) Axis Bank (b) Punjab National Bank (c) IDBI Bank (d) Bank of Baroda 77. China and which of the following other countries has played a central role in global poverty reduction

according to the UN report? (a) Japan (b) India (c) Singapore (d) Brazil 78. The world's oldest man certified by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest man in August 2014

has died at the age of 112 recently. What is the name of the oldest man? (a) Sakari Momoi (b) Ishikawa (c) kun yomi (d) jinmeiyo kanji 79. Who among the following Senior Indian Railways Service Officer took over charge as the General

Manager of the North Central Railway zone? (a) Ravi Kant Sharma (b) Arun Saxena (c) Kuldeep Singh (d) Nilesh Jha 80. In July, 2015 National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) launched a mobile application that will

recommend a balanced diet for cows and buffaloes to help dairy farmers. The name of the App is: (a) Pashu Poshan (b) Pashu Shiksha (c) Pashu Gyan (d) Pashu Kosh 81. Recently Nambi Narayan was in news for discharging an espionage case. He belongs to which of the

following fields? (a) Literature (b) Music (c) Banking (d) Scientific research 82. The Supreme Court sought details from Centre about the ratification process of the 99th Constitution

Amendment incorporating the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) law by State Assemblies. Who among the following is the Solicitor General of india?

(a) Ranjit Kumar (b) Maninder Singh (c) Tushar Mehta (d) PS Patwalia



83. As per the WHO report, India has made "progress" in increasing taxes on cigarettes between 2012-14. The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2015 which was released in

(a) New Delhi (b) Manila (c) Male (d) Dhaka 84. Name the Committee which was Recently constituted by the Union Sports Ministry to study status of SAI

training centers. (a) Ashwini Nachappa Committee (b) Adhyarjuna Committee (c) Bhagwati Committee (d) Chatalier Committee 85. 'Prerna Sthal' dedicated to nation at Hussainiwala, has seven pillars made of sandstone with copper

finish metallic inscription plaques. The central pillarcarries a portrait of (a) Mahatma Gandhi (b) Bhagat Singh (c) Subhas Chandra Bose (d) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel 86. The Giant African Land Snail (GALS), listed as one of the world's 100 most invasive species by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, was spotted on the campus of University at Taleigao in

(a) India (b) Florida (c) Mexico (d) Peurto Rico 87. The first postal ATM facility for account holders of postal savings opened in (a) Magaluru (b) Bengaluru (c) Mysuru (d) Belgaum 88. Professor Lord Kamlesh Patel has become the first British Asian to be appointed as Director of England

and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). He succeeds (a) Lord Morris of Handsworth (b) Brain Havill (c) Matthew Fleming (d) Tom Harrison 89. As per the reports in 2010, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a Resolution on

Elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy. Leprosy is caused by (a) Microbacterium aerolatum (b) Mycobacterium laprae (c ) Microbacterium barkeri (d) Microbacterium flavescens 90. Name the former finance Minister whom China has nominated as the Presidential candidate for $100

billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). (a) Jin Liqun (b) Zhou Enlai (c) Wu Xueqian (d) Li Zhaoxing 91. The Green climate fund (GCF) has decided to deploy its resources in India through which of the following

financial institutions? (a) RBI (b) NABARD (c) EXIM Bank (d) MFIs 92. For the first time in India, a system to detect earthquakes and disseminate warnings has been installed in

which of the following places? (a) Dibrugarh (b) Bhuj (c) Uttarakhand (d) Raksaul



93. Walmart India has entered into a strategic tie-up with which of the following telecom companies which will enable payments using its mobile payments service, M-Pesa?

(a) Vodafone India (b) Airtel Bharti (c) Idea (d) Aircel 94. Who among the following is announced to be the Chairman of the Bandhan bank of Kolkata? (a) Vijay Kumar Mishra (b) Ashok Kumar Lahiri (c) Y C Deveshwar (d) Rajeev Suri 95. Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched two programmes shrimp price information

over SMS by a missed call, and a mobile app to provide all kinds of information to the aqua farmers. What is the name of the App?

(a) m-SEWA (b) m-JAL KOSH (c) m-JAL GYAN (d) m-KRISHI 96. India has signed an Inter Governmental Agreement to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance

Act (FATCA) to promote transparency on tax matters with which of the following countries? (a) USA (b) Russia (c) Switzerland (d) Indonesia 97. Union Government has appointed which among the following as Managing Director and CEO of National

Housing Bank? (a) Venkata Krishna Reddy (b) Sriram Kalyanaraman (c) Kushal Pal Singh (d) G. V. Prasad 98. Bharti Airtel launched has launched a cross-border money transfer service for its mobile wallet customers

in which of the following countries? (a) Singapore (b) Malaysia (c) Canada (d) Niger 99. Credit Information Bureau India (Cibil) has appointed which among the following as its Managing Director

and Chief Executive Officer? (a) Rishab Gupta (b) Satish Pillai (c) Syed B. Ali (d) Anshu Jain 100. Drug maker Cipla has recently appointed which among the following as Executive Director on its board? (a) Indu Paul (b) Neelam Sharma (c) Samina Vaziralliss (d) Mallika Srinivasan 101. The Green climate fund (GCF) has decided to deploy its resources in India through which of the following

financial institutions? (a) RBI (b) NABARD (c) EXIM Bank (d) MFIs 102. For the first time in India, a system to detect earthquakes and disseminate warnings has been installed in

which of the following places? (a) Dibrugarh (b) Bhuj (c) Uttarakhand (d) Raksaul



103. Walmart India has entered into a strategic tie-up with which of the following telecom companies which will enable payments using its mobile payments service, M-Pesa?

(a) Vodafone India (b) Airtel Bharti (c) Idea (d) Aircel

104. Who among the following is announced to be the Chairman of the Bandhan bank of Kolkata? (a) Vijay Kumar Mishra (b) Ashok Kumar Lahiri (c) Y C Deveshwar (d) Rajeev Suri

105. Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched two programmes shrimp price information over SMS by a missed call, and a mobile app to provide all kinds of information to the aqua farmers. What is the name of the App?

(a) m-SEWA (b) m-JAL KOSH (c) m-JAL GYAN (d) m-KRISHI

106. India has signed an Inter Governmental Agreement to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) to promote transparency on tax matters with which of the following countries?

(a) USA (b) Russia (c) Switzerland (d) Indonesia 107. Union Government has appointed which among the following as Managing Director and CEO of National

Housing Bank? (a) Venkata Krishna Reddy (b) Sriram Kalyanaraman (c) Kushal Pal Singh (d) G. V. Prasad 108. Bharti Airtel launched has launched a cross-border money transfer service for its mobile wallet customers

in which of the following countries? (a) Singapore (b) Malaysia (c) Canada (d) Niger 109. Credit Information Bureau India (Cibil) has appointed which among the following as its Managing Director

and Chief Executive Officer? (a) Rishab Gupta (b) Satish Pillai (c) Syed B. Ali (d) Anshu Jain 110. Drug maker Cipla has recently appointed which among the following as Executive Director on its board? (a) Indu Paul (b) Neelam Sharma (c) Samina Vaziralliss (d) Mallika Srinivasan 111. Which of the following days in the month of July observed every year by the international community as

World Population Day? (a) 10th July (b) 11 July (c) 12th July (d) 13th July 112. Who among the following had known as world's longest-serving foreign minister, representing the oil rich

Gulf state of Saudi Arabia for 40 years who has died aged 75 recently? (a) Mohammed bin Salman (b) Mohammed bin Nayef (c) Alwaleed Bin Talal (d) Prince Saud al-Faisal 113. Who among the following has won Wimbledon (Women's Singles) tittle, 2015? (a) M. Sharapova (b) Garbine Muguruza (c) Serena Williams (d) V. Azarenka



114. Sania Mirza created history by becoming the first female player from the country to win a women's doubles Wimbledon title with which of the following partners?

(a) Simona Halep (b) Venus Williams (c) Maria Sharapova (d) Martina Hingis 115. Which among the following banks has launched the 'NRI Family Card,' a prepaid card for resident Indians

family member/dependent/acquaintance of NRIs? (a) State Bank of India (b) State Bank of Travancore (c) Reserve bank of India (d) Punjab National Bank 116. Who among four astronauts have been selected by NASA for commercial flights to the International

Space Station (ISS) from US soil? (a) Sunita Williams (b) Robert Behnken (c) Eric Boe (d) All of the above 117. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi six-nation tour to Central Asia, India has signed signed four

agreements including one to boost defence cooperation and hold annual joint military exercises with which of the following countries?

(a) Tajikistan (b) Uzbekistan (c) Turkmenistan (d) Kyrgyzstan 118. Recently, Defence PSU Bharat Electronics made Akash inducted into Indian Air Force. Who among the

following is the present Chairman and Managing Director, BEL? (a) S K Sharma (b) Naveen Singh (c) Mandeep Bhullar (d) Vinod Bhatia 119. The Beijing-based Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) took the decision to induct which among

the following countries recently as a full member of the SCO? (a) Tajikistan (b) Kazakhstan (c) India (d) Kyrgyzstan 120. World Population Day observed this year with which of the following themes? (a) Equality Empowers (b) Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies (c) Investing in Young People (d) Plan Your Family, Plan Your Future 121. Who among the following has won Wimbledon (Men's Singles) title of 2015? (a) Roger Federer (b) K. Anderson (c) R. Gasquet (d) Novak Djokovic 122. Which among the following Indian Films has won best original screenplay award at the Madrid

International Film Festival in Spain? (a) Nanu Avanalla Avalu (b) Buddha in a Traffic Jam (c) Masan (d) Court 123. The government of which of the following states is going to establish an 'Energy University' with focus on

research orientation and development of energy efficiency, energy conservation, and renewable sources?

(a) Gujarat (b) Rajasthan (c) Andhra Pradesh (d) Himachal Pradesh



124. Youngster Sumit Nagal became sixth Indian who has won a Grand Slam junior title after winning the boys doubles trophy at the Wimbledon championships with of the following partners?

(a) Nam Hoang Ly (b) Kevin Anderson (c) Grigor Dimitrov (d) Milos Raonic 125. Leander Paes of India paired with which among the following has won the Wimbledon mixed doubles

title, 2015? (a) Caroline Wozniacki (b) Ana Ivanovic (c) Petra Kvitova (d) Martina Hingis 126. In India's forthcoming Malabar naval exercise with the US in the Bay of Bengal in October, 2015 it has

included which of the following other countries? (a) China (b) Japan (c) Thailand (d) Malaysia 127. Which among the following financial institutions has set a target of providing Rs 30,000 crore as credit to

farmers for irrigation over the next three years? (a) FCI (b) NABARD (c) NAFED (d) None of the above 128. India has begun the work of tracing its shared heritage link from Ayodhaya with which of the following

countries? (a) Korea (b) Japan (c) Indonesia (d) Philippines 129. Big Bazar with which among the following mobile payments platform has inked an exclusive tie-up to

allow the retail firm's customers to pay for purchases using mobile wallet facility? (a) ZipCash (b) Airtel Money (c) MobiKwik (d) Paytm 130. Air Chief Marshal of India is on a four-day visit to South Africa, where he will discuss issues on enhancing

bilateral defense ties. Who among the following is the present Air Chief Marshal of India? (a) Bikram Singh (b) Arup Raha (c) Norman Anil Kumar Browne (d) Pradeep Vasant Naik 131. Who among the following has been appointed as the next Vice-Chief of the Indian Army? (a) Rajendrasinhji Jadeja (b) Pran Nath Thapar (c) Robin K. Dhowan (d) Man Mohan Singh Rai 132. Krishnapatnam Port has received the Golden Peacock environment management award for its initiatives

and achievements in the field of environment. It is located in which of the following states? (a) Kerala (b) Goa (c) Andhra Pradesh (d) Maharashtra 133. In July 2015, India with which among the following countries has signed a Memorandum of

Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in the field of election management and administration? (a) Georgia (b) Turkey (c) Armenia (d) Russia



134. The GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system has been recently launched to the Indian aviation industry. India comes at which place to offer space-based satellite navigation services to the aviation sector in the world?

(a) Second (b) Third (c) Fourth (d) Fifth

135. Which among the following training ship of Indian Navy will participate in an annual race in European waters and dock at a UK port?

(a) INS Varuna (b) INS Tarangini (c) INS Sudarshini (d) INSV Mhadei

136. The prestigious Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Award for 2015, a recognition that honors the technology giant's partner achievements across the globe, has been awarded to which among the following?

(a) Happiest Minds Technologies (b) HCL Technologies (c) Comparex India Pvt Ltd (d) Aditi Technologies 137. What is the upper limit up to which the foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) can recommend

foreign investment proposals to Finance Minister for approval? (a) Rs 2,000 crore (b) Rs 2,500 crore (c) Rs 3,000 crore (d) Rs 3,500 crore

138. Which of the following states during July 2015 became the first state in the country to initiate state-wide birth defect surveillance in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Centre for Disease Control (CDC)?

(a) Punjab (b) Haryana (c) Rajasthan (d) Madhya Pradesh

139. LG Electronics appointed who among the following as the new Managing Director of its India operations? (a) Vishal Karan (b) Soon H. Kwon (c) Manish Sharma (d) Kim Ki-Wan 140. The Indian Navy has deployed the INS Teg, in the South Indian Ocean to provide surveillance support in

the region. INS Teg is an advanced version of which among the following class of frigates? (a) Brahmaputra-class (b) Talwar-class (c) Maestrale-class (d) Shivalik-class 141. Which among the following Committees has been appointed by the Supreme Court to look into the matter

of Indian Premier League (IPL) betting scandal? (a) Naresh Chandra Committee (b) Mukul Mudgal committee (c) Justice R.M. Lodha Committee (d) Justice Srikrishna committee 142. The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has recently announced a new fund for Micro,

small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the manufacturing sector by which they can get soft loans and term loans at concessional interest rates. What is the name of the fund?

(a) SMETUF Fund (b) SMILES Fund (c) SMILSE Fund (d) CLCSS Fund 143. The Laser National sailing championship, the country's biggest inland event will be held at which of the

following places from July 15 to 19, 2015? (a) Kerala (b) Hyderabad (c) Goa (d) Kochi



144. Eminent music composer M.S. Viswanathan, who passed away on 14 July 2015, was famous for his film compositions in which of the following languages?

(a) Tamil (b) Oriya (c) Malayalam (d) Konkani 145. Who among the following has been recently appointed as new Managing Director and Group CEO by

Global financial services hub Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City)? (a) C.R. Dua (b) D. K. Mehrotra (c) Ajay Kumar Pandey (d) Hemant Krishan Singh 146. Which among the following has been appointed by Madhya Pradesh government as the Chairman of

Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA)? (a) Rakesh Sahni (b) Subodh Bhargava (c) Koushik Chatterjee (d) Ishaat Hussain 147. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched a contest to select 100 women achievers of

India through public nominations via which among the following Social Media? (a) Youtube (b) Face book (c) Twitter (d) What's app 148. Which among the following places shows worse Quality of air according to recent official air quality data? (a) Delhi (b) Kanpur (c) Chennai (d) Varanasi 149. The Income Tax Department launched its ambitious One Time Password (OTP) based e-filing verification

system for taxpayers. The facility can be accessed using… (a) Internet banking (b) Aadhaar number (c) ATM (d) All of the above 150. Recently P5+1 and Iran reached a nuclear deal. Which among the following countries are not included in

P5+1 group? (a) Japan (b) Germany (c) France (d) Russia 151. In July, 2015 RBI has set up a panel for action plan on financial inclusion. Who among the following will

be the head of the panel? (a) Urjit R. Patel (b) Kushal Pal Singh (c) Deepak Mohanty (d) G. V. Prasad 152. In July, 2015 the Home Ministry has cleared a proposal of Chinese telecom giant Huawei to set up a

manufacturing unit in which of the following states? (a) Gujarat (b) Tamil Nadu (c) Madhya Pradesh (d) Maharashtra 153. According to the recent findings by Nasa's New Horizons probe, Pluto has which of the following type of

surface in our solar system? (a) Youngest surface (b) Oldest surface (c) Icy Surface (d) Rocky Surface



154. Who among the following has been appointed as the new chief marketing officer (CMO) of Citibank in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa?

(a) Anshu Jain (b) Muhtar Kent (c) Syed B. Ali (d) Sanjeev Kapur 155. The fourth edition of the Indo-UK Bilateral exercise will be conducted in the UK on July 21, 2015. What is

the name of this bilateral exercise? (a) Maitree (b) Indradhanush (c) Yudh Abhyas (d) EKUVERIN 156. The United Nations General Assembly has celebrated the first World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) on which

of the following days? (a) 12th July (b) 14th July (c) 15th July (d) 16th July 157. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has recently approved India's first dedicated Defense

Industrial Park at which of the following places? (a) Ottapalam (b) Palakkad (c) Kozhikode (d) Idukki 158. Which among the following places has been chosen as 'city of music' by UNESCO under the Creative

Cities Network in July, 2015? (a) Lucknow (b) Vrindavan (c) Haridwar (d) Varanasi 159. American aerospace and defense major Boeing has signed an agreement to collaborate in aerospace

and defense manufacturing in India with of the following companies? (a) Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (b) DRDO (c) Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (d) Bharat Electronics Limited 160. Snapdeal.com has re-launched a new mobile-based platform, targeting micro, small and medium

enterprises and making it possible for even individuals to sell their products. What is the name of that mobile platform?

(a) Quicko (b) Shopo (c) Easy Shopping (d) Fast Tec 161. The Government of India and the World Bank with which of the following states have signed a $250-

million credit agreement for Disaster Recovery Project? (a) Orissa (b) Andhra Pradesh (c) Rajasthan (d) Gujarat 162. DoT committee tasked with making recommendations on how India should treat net neutrality and

regulates the internet has submitted its report in July, 2015. Who among the following has chaired the committee?

(a) Sanjay Subrahmanyam (b) Jagdish Sheth (c) A.K. Bhargava (d) Umesh Vazirani 163. The European Central Bank (ECB) has recently increased emergency funding for Greek banks to cut the

country's debt burden in July, 2015. The headquarter of ECB is located at which of the following places? (a) France (b) Spain (c) Ireland (d) Germany



164. What amount has been sanctioned by the government as an additional fund for the recapitalization of weak regional rural banks (RRBs) in July, 2015?

(a) Rs 300 crore (b) Rs 500 crore (c) Rs 700 crore (d) Rs 1000 crore 165. Who among the following will be the new chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII)? (a) Rajinder Khanna (b) Prashant Pathrabe (c) Roshan K. Bhatia (d) Dineshwar Sharma 166. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the creation of an intra-State

transmission system at an estimated cost of Rs. 8,548.68 crore in July, 2015. Who among the following is the chairman of CCEA?

(a) Narendra Modi (b) Rajnath Singh (c) Sushma Swaraj (d) Arun Jaitley 167. Who among the following Indian American women has been an honored as "Champions of Change" by

the White House for her efforts in protecting environment and communities from the effects of climate change?

(a) Renu Khator (b) Sunita Viswanath (c) Anjli Jain (d) Mriganka Sur 168. RRBs are jointly owned by the Centre, state governments and sponsor banks with the issued capital

shared in the proportion of… (a) 50 per cent, 15 per cent and 35 per cent respectively (b) 50 per cent, 25 per cent and 25 per cent respectively (c) 50 per cent, 30 per cent and 20 per cent respectively (d) 50 per cent, 35 per cent and 15 per cent respectively

169. Which among the following state has became the first state to operationalize 117-megawatt solar power projects in July, 2015

(a) Gujarat (b) Haryana (c) Punjab (d) Uttar Pradesh

170. Who among the following South Africa's Indian-origin freedom struggle veteran has been knighted by the French government for his lifelong service to the community?

(a) Arvind Panagariya (b) Vijay Vazirani (c) Umesh Vazirani (d) Ahmed Kathrada

171. The Reserve Bank of India has signed a special currency swap agreement with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka that will allow the latter to draw up to…

(a) $1.1 Billion (b) $1.5 Billion (c) $2.0 Billion (d) $2.5 Billion 172. Ashadi Beej or Ashadhi Bij is observed on the second day of the shukla paksha or waxing phase of moon

in Ashada month. It is the New Year of which of the following communities? (a) Sakaldwipiya community (b) Kutchi community (c) Kunbi community (d) Labanas community 173. Which among the following states has bagged this year's prestigious Pacific Asia Travel Association

(PATA) Gold Award? (a) Rajasthan (b) Himachal Pradesh (c) Kerala (d) Madhya Pradesh



174. Puri's Rath Yatra marks the annual journey of the deities from the Jagannath Temple in the chariots to which of the following temples?

(a) Jameswar Temple (b) Mahalakshmi Temple (c) Bimala Temple (d) Devi Gundicha 175. 'Bonalu' is the State festival of which of the following state? (a) Andhra Pradesh (b) Telangana (c) Karnataka (d) Manipur 176. Which among the following universities was chosen as Best Private University of the Year, at a corporate

summit organized by All India Technical and Management Council (AITMC)? (a) Hindustan University (b) Amity University (c) Lovely Professional University (d) Manipal University 177. State Bank of India plans to offer annual profit to employees as part of talent retention and motivation

initiative up to what per cent? (a) One per cent (b) Three per cent (c) Five per cent (d) Six per cent 178. The National Doctor's Day in India is celebrated in the month of July. It is celebrated in the memory of

which of the following doctors? (a) Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (b) Dr. Ashim Khan (c) Dr. Venu Gopal (d) Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy 179. 'Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years' is a book written by which among the following authors? (a) A. S Dulat (b) Anita Anand (c) Neel Mukherjee (d) Jhumpa Lahiri 180. The Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain has been inscribed as the UNESCO World Heritage Site in July,

2015. It is located in which of the following countries? (a) Nepal (b) Bhutan (c) Mongolia (d) Myanmar 181. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is an Indian government agency responsible for collecting

and analyzing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code. Its headquarter is located at which of the following places?

(a) Mumbai (b) New Delhi (c) Nagpur (d) Pune 182. The government has constituted a council to promote India's overseas shipments. Who among the

following will be chairperson of the council? (a) Prime Minister (b) Finance Minister (c) Commerce and Trade Minister (d) Commerce and Industry Minister 183. According to the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau, which among the following states

has recorded the highest number of farmers' suicides in the country during 2014? (a) Chhattisgarh (b) Maharashtra (c) Telangna (d) Madhya Pradesh



184. China has confirmed its participation in the Indian International Fleet Review (IFR) in February 2016. It will be held at which of the following places?

(a) Port Blair (b) Mormugao (c) Lakshadweep (d) Visakhapatnam 185. Which among the following two sectors of strategic importance would be kept out of the new provisions of

composite cap for foreign investment? (a) Banking and petro chemical (b) Banking and Defense (c) Defense and Nuclear energy (d) Defense and Aviation 186. The Reserve Bank of India asked banks to treat credit card accounts as non-performing if the minimum

amount due is not paid fully within… (a) 60 days (b) 90 days (c) 100 days (d) 120 days 187. According to the National Crime Records Bureau's latest data for 2014, which of the following cities

occupies a position of most unsafe city for pedestrians? (a) Bangalore (b) New Delhi (c) Kolkata (d) Mumbai 188. Nelson Mandela International Day or Mandela Day is an annual international day in honor of Nelson

Mandela. It is celebrated every year on which of the following days? (a) 17th July (b) 18 July (c) 19th July (d) 20th July 189. Nilgiris Mountain Railway got the Heritage Status at Durban in Afric(a) It has recently successfully

completed how many years as one of the World Heritage site? (a) 10 years (b) 15 Years (c) 20 Years (d) 25 years 190. Which among the following Indian-Origin doctor has been awarded an honorary fellowship of the

University of Central Lancashire in UK recently? (a) Satish K. Tripathi, (b) Nitin Nohria (c) Pradeep Khosla (d) Shiv Pande 191. According to data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which of the following states

leads in the highest number of persons committed suicide across the country in 2014? (a) Bihar (b) Rajasthan (c) Maharashtra (d) Uttar Pradesh 192. Former world number one and a two-time Grand Slam winner have been recently inducted into the

International Tennis Hall of Fame. Name the player: (a) Pieter Aldrich (b) Andre Agassi (c) David Adams (d) Amelie Mauresmo 193. The United States and Cuba has recently reopen embassies in their respective capitals to restore

diplomatic relations. Which among the following is the capital of Cuba? (a) Holguín (b) Santa Clara (c) Havana (d) Florida



194. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 46th Session of Indian labour Conference, also called the 'Labour Parliament', at which of the following places on 20th July, 2015?

(a) New Delhi (b) Mumbai (c) Ahemdabad (d) Pune 195. In a historic first acceptance of female leadership, Taiwan's top two political parties have each nominated

a woman for President in 2016. Name the women: (a) Shao-chieh (b) Hung Hsiu-chu (c) Chan Yung (d) Wen-hsing

196. According to the Union Tourism Ministry data, tourist arrivals in India registered a double-digit growth in 2014. Which of the following states remained the favorite destination for domestic and foreign visitors?

(a) Kerala (b) Goa (c) Tamil Nadu (d) Karnataka

197. Who among the following has been elected as the president of Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC)?

(a) G. K. Reddy (b) Daggubati Suresh Babu (c) Tenali Ramakrishna (d) Madhava Varma

198. Which of the following cities became the first city of the country to launch a picture intelligence unit? (a) Surat (b) Nasik (c) Mumbai (d) Chandigarh

199. India's biggest defense partner recently offers its help to the government with its ambitious Ganga cleaning project. Name the country:

(a) US (b) Israel (c) Russia (d) France

200. Who among the following has won the World Junior Golf Championship in San Diego, California, 2015? (a) Prince Cunningham (b) David Gao (c) Sachin Kumar (d) Shubham Jaglan 201. Who among the following has been appointed as Chairperson of FSSAI by the Department of Personnel

and Training? (a) Satish K. Tripathi (b) Bhanu Pratap Sharma (c) Subra Suresh (d) Pradeep Khosla 202. The New Development Bank (NDB) floated by the BRICS nations, formally started its operations. It's

headquartered at which of the following places? (a) Hong Kong (b) Beijing (c) Shanghai (d) Wuhan 203. Delhi Metro has launched a smart card recharge facility at Bank's Business Correspondent Networks

across the national capital, with which of the following banks? (a) ICICI (b) SBI (c) PNB (d) IDBI 204. Indigenous designed and developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, Visibility Measuring

System has been installed at Indira Gandhi International Airport. What is the name of the visibility system?

(a) Druthi (b) Druna (c) Svenska (d) Drishti



205. Gomti river of Lucknow exceeds the level of Arsenic toxicity twice the permissible limit set by the World Health Organisation. What is the limit set by WHO?

(a) 0.01 mg/litre (b) 0.02 mg/litre (c) 0.05 mg/litre (d) 0.10 mg/litre 206. Who among the following took over the charge as chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW)? (a) Anjli Jain (b) Swati Maliwal (c) Mallika Dutt (d) Urvashi Vaid 207. Alex Rocco, the US actor has died of cancer aged 79. He was best known for his role in crime drama… (a) Scarface (b) Goodfellas (c) Godfather (d) The Dark Knight 208. Snapdeal has tied-up with which of the following, that will enable its merchants to avail a loan facility from

Rs 5 lakh to 2 crore? (a) JM Financial (b) Centrum Finance Limited (c) L & T Finance Limited (d) Tata Capital 209. Which among the following physicists on 20 July 2015 launched $100 million search for aliens? (a) Jeffrey Goldstone (b) Stephen Hawkings (c) George Walker (d) Robert G. Chambers 210. Recently Dr Bisheshar Pradeep passed away at the age of 80. He was a famous… (a) Urdu fiction writer (b) Scientist (c) Journalist (d) Classical Dancer 211. Who among the following has won the prestigious British Open Golf title for 2015? (a) Jordan Spieth (b) Zach Johnson (c) Louis Oosthuizen (d) Marc Leishman 212. Who among the following has won the Grand Prix World Press Cartoon 2014 Award? (a) Sudhir Dar (b) Shekhar Gurera (c) Neelabh Banerjee (d) Pamarthy Shankar 213. Which among the following is now officially became the first solely renewable energy-powered airport in

the world? (a) Incheon International Airport (b) London Heathrow Airport (c) Baltra's Seymour Airport (d) Zurich Airport 214. Who among the following will replace Olivier Blanchard as International Monetary Fund's new chief

economist? (a) Johan Witteveen (b) Maurice Obstfeld (c) Michael Mussa (d) Kenneth Rogoff 215. NABARD has launched a project for digitization of all SHGs (Self Help Groups) in the country. Name the

project. (a) Eshakti (b) Eurja (c) Esmarth (d) Esarthak



216. At the 87th foundation day of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch four new schemes. It is going to be held at which of the following places?

(a) Lucknow (b) New Delhi (c) Patna (d) Ahemdabad 217. The Board for Control of Cricket in India on 21 July 2015 has announced the venues for the ICC World T-

20, 2016. Which city ground will host the Final of T-20 match? (a) Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium (b) Eden Gardens stadium (c) Wankhede Stadium (d) Brabourne Stadium 218. Who among the following has won American Book Award for the environmental work "This Changes

Everything Capitalism vs. The Climate"? (a) Kwame Alexander (b) Marlon James (c) Carlos Santana (d) Naomi Klein 219. Under the newly introduced composite cap in foreign investment policy up to what percent companies

can invest in multi-brand retail and e-retail without government approval? (a) 49 percent (b) 50 percent (c) 51 percent (d) 70 percent 220. With which of the following countries, India has signed an agreement on sharing white-shipping

information to enhance maritime cooperation between the two navies? (a) Malaysia (b) China (c) Myanmar (d) Singapore 221. Which among the following was the creator of famous comic character 'Archie', who died on 20 July

2015? (a) Chuck Jones (b) Tom Moore (c) Matt Groening (d) Alan Moore 222. Union Government has extended the Interest Subvention Scheme to banks under which farmers receive

short-term crop loans up to Rs. 3 lakh at what rate of interest per annum? (a) Five percent (b) Six percent (c) seven per cent (d) Eight percent 223. Who among the following has been appointed as the brand ambassador of the Beti Bachao, Beti

Padhao: Call to Action campaign, which was launched by the Haryana government in Gurgaon? (a) Vidya Balan (b) Priyanka Chopra (c) Parineeti Chopra (d) Kangna Ranaut 224. Who among the following Indians has made the country proud by successfully completing the Ironman

Triathlon held in Zurich, which is considered one of the world's toughest races, in July, 2015? (a) Paavo Nurmi (b) Pullela gopichand (c) Dhyan Chand (d) Milind Somanmade 225. Government of state has decided to offer Rs 5,000 as compensation for loss of income to beggars to

keep away from the crowded Ghats during which of the following festivals? (a) Puri Rath Yatra (b) Godavari Maha Pushkaram (c) Kumbh Mela (d) Sabari Mala



226. Who among the following companies has become India's first and only company to receive the Economic Dividends for Gender Equality certification (EDGE)?

(a) L'Oreal India (b) Lotus Herbals Ltd. (c) Revlon India (d) Hindustan Unilever Limited 227. Which of the following states, High Court has imposed a complete ban on all types of buffalo and bull

fights in July, 2015? (a) Kerala (b) Himachal Pradesh (c) Andhra Pradesh (d) Uttar Pradesh 228. The government is likely to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in white labeled ATM

operations to promote financial inclusion. White labeled ATMs are set up by which among the following? (a) Regional Rural Banks (b) Foreign Banks (c) Commercial Banks (d) Private non-bank companies 229. Modi will inaugurate 'MPs Ki Paathshala' in Parliament on 23rd July, 2015 where all Lok Sabha members

will be educated about the critical issues facing the country. It will be chaired by… (a) P. J. Kurien (b) Sumitra Mahajan (c) Sachin Chaturvedi (d) Mohammad Hamid Ansari 230. Who among the following has been appointed Chairman-cum-Managing Director of National Aluminum

Company Ltd. (NALCO) in July, 2015? (a) Pradeep Maheswari (b) T.K. Chand (c) A. K Srivastava (d) B.L Bagra 231. Which among the following places has been announced as the World Book Capital for 2017 by

UNESCO? (a) Yerevan (b) Bangkok (c) Conakry (d) Incheon 232. The WHO will launch a new pilot campaign in India, Egypt and Uganda to combat hepatitis. The World

Hepatitis Day is on which of the following days: (a) July 24 (b) July 26 (c) July 27 (d) July 28 233. India ranked at which position in the world in terms of power generation from nuclear sources, according

to data published by the Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)?

(a)10th (b) 11th (c) 12th (d) 15th 234. According to the data of National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) 2005-06, which among the following

state has topped the list having highest number of malnourished children in the country? (a) Rajasthan (b) Maharashtra (c) Uttar Pradesh (d) Bihar 235. Who among the following has been named as the new Director-General of TERI? (a) Ajay Mathur (b) Ashok Pathak (c) Naagendra Singh (d) Vinod Bhatia



236. On which of the following days, National Broadcasting day is observed across the country? (a) 22nd July (b) 23rd July (c) 25th July (d) 26th July 237. How many states out of 29 states in the country were found eligible for getting performance grants of

urban local bodies during 2014-15? (a) Seven (b) Nine (c) Ten (d) Eleven 238. Which among the following companies has topped the Fortune Global 500 list 2015? (a) China National Petroleum (b) Royal Dutch Shell (c) Exxon Mobil (d) Walmart

239. What is the India's rank on the US Green Building Council's annual ranking of the top 10 countries for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings?

(a) Third (b) Fourth (c) Fifth (d) Tenth

240. Which among the following was the Fab 50's brightest star, over the decade in the Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 list?

(a) Aurobindo Pharma (b) HCL Technologies (c) HDFC Bank (d) Tata Consultancy

241. Recently, an earth-like planet was discovered by NASA's Kepler telescope. What is the name of the Planet?

(a) Virginis b (b) Kepler-452b (c) Kepler 22b (d) Gliese 581

242. Which among the following sports person is in the list of top 10 most marketable sports persons in the world of London School of Marketing?

(a) Sachin Tendulkar (b) Sania Mirza (c) Mahendra Singh Dhoni (d) Saina Nehwal

243. The drug regulators of the European Union (EU) gave green signal to the world's first malaria vaccine on 24 July 2015 developed by GlaxoSmithKline. Name the vaccine.

(a) Chloroquine (b) Mosquirix (c) Malarone (d) Mefloquine 244. On 24th July, 2015 IT companies CSC and HCL Technologies have signed an agreement to form a

software and services company to provide technology services and solutions to which among the following industries?

(a) Pharmaceutical industry (b) Aviation industry (c) Automobile industry (d) Banking industry 245. Which among the following has been has appointed as new Nestle India MD of Swiss food group Nestle? (a) Suresh Narayanan (b) Mukesh Iwata (c) Vijay Kumar (d) A. M Naik 246. Who among the following has been appointed as the new chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of

National Aluminum Company (NALCO)? (a) Satya Prabhakar (b) Bharat Desai (c) T K Chand (d) Vinod Shanghvi



247. Name the currency in which first loan to be issued by the New Development Bank (NDB) of the five-nation BRICS?

(a) Chinese Yuan Renminbi (b) Brazilian real (c) Russian Ruble (d) Indian Rupee 248. Which among the following two members of the Anglo-Indian Community are nominated by President of

India to the Lok Sabha? (a) Shelley Conn and Frank Anthony (b) Richard Hay and George Baker (c) Roger Binny and Merle Oberon (d) George Orwell and Henry Gidney 249. With which among the following states IRCTC has signed a MoU to promote tourism in the state in July,

2015? (a) Goa (b) Himachal Pradesh (c) Uttrakhand (d) Kerala 250. Which among the following states cabinet has approved the Shyama prasad Mukherjee Jan Van Vikas

Scheme aimed at comprehensive development of villages in the buffer zones of tiger reserves? (a) Uttrakhand (b) Maharashtra (c) Madhya Pradesh (d) West Bengal 251. Who among the following has been awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in the academic category? (a) K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyar (b) Ramachandra Guha (c) Ram Sharan Sharma (d) S.T Joshi 252. Who among the following has won his second Tour de France title on 26 July 2015? (a) Chris Froome (b) Bradley Wiggin (c) Eddy Merckx (d) Jacques Anquetil 253. Who among the following has been appointed as chief coach of the Indian hockey team? (a) Anthony Thornton (b) Neil Hawgood (c) Terry Walsh (d) Roelant Oltmans 254. Who among the following has won Hungarian Grand Prix? (a) Daniil Kvyat (b) Sebastian Vettel (c) Fernando Alonso (d) Max Verstappen 255. Who among the following two laureates were awarded with First-ever UN Nelson Mandela Prize by the

United Nations at the UN Headquarters in New York? (a) Shulamith Koenig and Deng Pufang (b) Dr. Denis Mukwege and Dr. Carolyn Gomes (c) Dr. Helena Ndume and Jorge Fernando Branco Sampaio (d) Biram Dah Abeid and Khadija Ryadi 256. Which among the following states recently suffering from an outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) (a) Manipur (b) Assam (c) West Bengal (d) Nagaland 257. To connect with which among the following countries, Central Government has sanctioned ?1,000 crore

for laying a railway track through the north-east? (a) Bhutan (b) Nepal (c) Myanmar (d) Bangladesh



258. Which among the following has embarked on a huge task of bring out an encyclopedia of physics in the Telugu language?

(a) Murali Narayana Dulla (b) K.C. Kesava Pillai (c) K. V. Simon (d) Thirunalloor Karunakaran 259. Which among the following Public sector undertakings has bagged the Dun & Bradstreet's 'India's Top

PSUs Awards 2015? (a) Bharat Coking Coal Limited (b) Air India Charters Limited (c) Bharat Electronics Ltd (d) Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited

260. The Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FKCCI), which successfully liaises between the business community and the governments, is entering its 100th year of service. Who among the following started the chamber?

(a) P T Chetty (b) M Visvesvaraya (c) M S Chettiar (d) G Subrahmanya

261. Which among the following Global online retail companies of US has recently achieved landmark achievement in market capitalization, in which it's market capitalization gone past to retail giant Walmart?

(a) Titan (b) ebay (c) Amazon (d) Kroger

262. Who among the following has been appointed as the new Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Syrian Bank?

(a) Vinod Khurana (b) Anand Krishnamurthy (c) P J Nayak (d) Rakesh Bhatia

263. Who among the following has been awarded by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the prestigious Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) award for excellence in Journalism in Agricultural Research and Development-2014?

(a) Gargi Parsai (b) Sagrika Ghosh (c) Arun Shourie (d) Amitabha Chowdhury 264. The 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games open will be held at which of the following places? (a) San Jose (b) Boston (c) Alaska (d) Los Angeles 265. Who among the following scientists has won the world's oldest scientific prize, the Royal Society's Copley

Medal? (a) Frederick Reines (b) Peter Higgs (c) Georges Charpak (d) Martin Lewis Perl 266. Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change along with three state governments has

decided to undertake an artificial breeding programme for the Great Indian Bustard. Which among the following the states will not be part of this programme?

(a) Rajasthan (b) Gujarat (c) Maharashtra (d) Madhya Pradesh 267. Recently, the panel constituted by central government to examine the matter relating to levy of MAT on

FIIs prior to April 2015 has submitted its report to finance ministry. The panel was headed by which among the following?

(a) Girish Ahuja (b) Ashok Lahiri (c) A. P Shah (d) K M Chandrasekhar



268. M1-S and M2-S, two new-generation satellites of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System successfully launched on July 25, 2015.BeiDou is the Navigation Satellite System of which among the following countries?

(a) China (b) Russia (c) United States of America (d) France 269. At which of the following places, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya

Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) on 25th July, 2015? (a) Raipur (b) Patna (c) New Delhi (d) Ranchi 270. Central Government Constitutes a Committee to Suggest Measures for Selection of the Most Meritorious

to Teaching Profession. Who among the following will be chairperson of the committee? (a) Dr. Paul Shrivastava (b) Dipak C. Jain (c) Prof. Arun Nigavekar (d) Prof. Avinash Kamalakar Dixit 271. Who among the following has been appointed the new chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

(TRAI)? (a) Ramesh Chandra Jha (b) Naresh Mehta (c) R.S Sharma (d) Shail Chaturvedi 272. According to Assocham study, which state has ranked top among States for achieving a ratio in terms of

actual exports to actual investments through Agri Eport Zones (AEZs)? (a) Rajasthan (b) Kerala (c) Gujarat (d) Haryana 273. Who among the following has been appointed as the chairman of the Food Safety and Standards

Authority of India (FSSAI)? (a) K Chandramouli (b) Bhanu Pratap Sharma (c) Yudhvir Singh Malik (d) Ashish Bahuguna 274. Which among the following countries has been formally accepted as its new member country by the

World Trade Organization General Council at its headquarters in Geneva on 27th July, 2015? (a) Afghanistan (b) Kazakhstan (c) Bhutan (d) Ethiopia 275. World Hepatitis Day, observed on July 28 every year, aims to raise global awareness of hepatitis.

Hepatitis is most commonly caused by a… (a) Viral infection (b) Bacterial Infection (c) Fungal Infection (d) Prionic Infection 276. Which among the following has become the first state in the country to ink mandatory voting rule on 27th

July, 2015? (a) Himachal Pradesh (b) Gujarat (c) Punjab (d) Andhra Pradesh 277. Which city has topped the list of cities in terms of online visa applications, with 22 per cent contribution,

according to a survey by travel firm Thomas Cook (India)? (a) Mumbai (b) New Delhi (c) Bengaluru (d) Ahemdabad



278. Name the firm to whom the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted banking license under Section 22(1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 for undertaking banking business in the country on 23rd July, 2015.

(a) IDFC (b) Bandhan Bank (c) Bajaj Finance (d) Aditya Birla Nuvo 279. After development of Chabahar port in Iran, Indian Government has planned to develop the port in

Bangladesh. Name the port. (a) Chittagong Port (b) Payra Port (c) Mongla Port (d) Beira Port

280. Who among the following has joined as CEO of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group of Oil & Gas Business? (a) Ambarish Srivastava (b) Suresh Joshi (c) Narsinh Mehta (d) Ashok Kumar Balyan

281. INSAT-3D, ISRO's Satellite, has completed two successful years in its orbit in July, 2015. This Satellite is used to get information on:

(a) Communication (b) Navigation (c) Remote Sensing (d) Meteorological Observation

282. Nepal's temple trust on 28 July 2015 announced to ban animal sacrifice in an event which is held every five years. What is the name of this festival?

(a) Ghanta Karn festival (b) Dashain festival (c) Tihar festival (d) Gadhimai festival

283. Which state government on 28 July 2015 announced an allowance of Rs 500 per month for the transgender people in the state?

(a) Tripura (b) Manipur (c) Himachal Pradesh (d) Maharashtra

284. Which Indian gold jewelry entity recently acquired the world's largest precious metals refining company Valcambi?

(a) Malabar Gold and Diamonds (b) Senco Gold Jwellers (c) Rajesh Exports Limited (d) Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri 285. Which city in India has the youngest startup ecosystem in the world, according to a survey of the top 20

global startup ecosystems? (a) Mumbai (b) Bengaluru (c) New Delhi (d) Gujarat 286. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 420 crore on a leading

automobile manufacturer for unfair trade practices. Name the automobile manufacturer. (a) Hyundai Motors (b) Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (c) Tata Motors Limited (d) Hero MotoCorp Ltd 287. Which private sector lender bank of India has completed the acquisition of the diamond and jewelry

financing business of Britain's largest public bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)? (a) Axis Bank (b) ICICI Bank (c) IndusInd Bank (d) YES Bank 288. Who among following will be the chairman of the central government's sub-committee, formed on issues

related to online pharmacies? (a) Kanaka Dasa (b) Harshadeep Kamble (c) Surendra Sharma (d) Uday Prakash



289. The Asian Development Bank has inked USD 300 million loan pact with the government of India to support which social welfare scheme?

(a) National Urban Health Mission (b) Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (c) Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (d) Make in India 290. Which among the following cities will become the first city to have online police verification process for

passports with its launch in November, 2015 as part of a country-wide project?s (a) Chandigarh (b) Mumbai (c) New Delhi (d) Bengaluru 291. Maharashtra's first Indian Institute of Management (IIM) was inaugurated during July 2015. This IIM is

situated at which place? (a) Nagpur (b) Mumbai (c) Pune (d) Nasik 292. Who among the following founder of the non-governmental organization "Goonj" was awarded Ramon

Magsaysay Award this year? (a) Sanjeev Chaturvedi (b) Sandeep Pandey (c) Anshu Gupta (d) Aditya Singh 293. Which Indian state decided to create 'an equipment bank' designed to supply equipment for all works? (a) Telangana (b) Odisha (c) Tamil Nadu (d) Andhra Pradesh 294. Recently Scientists have found that land under the largest estuary in the US is sinking rapidly, Which

among the following is the largest estuary of United states? (a) Chesapeake Bay (b) Winyah Bay (c) Hoffler Creek (d) Little Narragansett Bay 295. 'Mobile Science Laboratory' (MSL) vans are imparting knowledge in science to children particularly in

rural areas of Bihar. It is dedicated to: (a) Dr C. V. Raman (b) Dr (A)P.J Abdul Kalam (c) Satyendra Nath Bose (d) Dr.Vikram Sarabhai 296. Which among the following is the new operating system of Microsoft launched in July 2015? (a) Window 9 (b) Window 10 (c) Window Vista Star (d) Window Super 297. Which country is building world's largest telescope equal to the size of 30 football fields? (a) USA (b) China (c) Denmark (d) France 298. According to United Nations 'World Population Prospects' report which among the following countries

population is growing most rapidly? (a) India (b) Nigeria (c) Pakistan (d) United States 299. Recently which state head became the first one of his country to visit Vietnam? (a) Barack Obama (b) Angela Merkel (c) David Cameroon (d) Nawaz Sharif



300. Which among the following country vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would set up an international criminal court to prosecute those responsible for shooting down a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine?

(a) Russia (b) USA (c) UK (d) China 301. Cabinet approves new Consumer Protection Bill 2015, it will replace the Consumer Protection Act of

year: (a) 1972 (b) 1980 (c) 1986 (d) 1988 302. The convict of 1993 Mumbai blasts was hanged recently. Can you name him from the given options? (a) Mohammad Afzal Guru (b) Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab (c) Yakub Abdul Razak Memon (d) Bheru Singh 303. Which state government has passed Lokayukta bill recently( in the fourth week of July 2015 ? (a) Karnataka (b) Tamil Nadu (c) Punjab (d) Kerala 304. Name the cyclone over the Bay of Bengal that was in the news in the month of July 2015. (a) Ashobaa (b) Komen (c) Chapala (d) Kyant 305. Which of the following cities in India has become first to fight Malaria with Software? (a) Delhi (b) Mangalore (c) Hyderabad (d) Bangalore 306. Who among the following President of India is called Peoples' President? (a) Kocheril Raman Narayanan (b) Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (c) Pratibha Patil (d) Dr. (A) P. J. Abdul Kalam 307. This country freed 7000 political prisoners who were jailed for illegal logging. Identify it from the given

options. (a) India (b) Australia (c) China (d) Myanmar 308. What is the name of foreign bank that has acquired online broker Sharekhan? (a) Citi Bank (b) BNP Paribas (c) Yes Bank (d) Standard Chartered Bank 309. Which company has retained top position (based on valuation) as India's most valuable brand recently? (a) TATA Group (b) Reliance (c) Airtel (d) Indian Oil 310. RBI is releasing a coin in commemoration of International Yoga Day. What is the denomination of the

coin in question? (a) 1 rupee coin (b) 2 rupee coin (c) 5 rupee coin (d) 10 rupee coin



Answer Key

1 b 2 a 3 d 4 b 5 b 6 c 7 d 8 b 9 a 10 d

11 d 12 c 13 b 14 a 15 d 16 a 17 d 18 b 19 d 20 b

21 a 22 b 23 b 24 a 25 c 26 b 27 d 28 c 29 a 30 c

31 b 32 c 33 a 34 b 35 c 36 a 37 d 38 b 39 a 40 c

41 c 42 b 43 d 44 a 45 d 46 b 47 c 48 b 49 a 50 b

51 a 52 b 53 d 54 c 55 b 56 c 57 b 58 d 59 c 60 b

61 c 62 b 63 d 64 c 65 a 66 d 67 b 68 d 69 c 70 a

71 c 72 b 73 a 74 d 75 a 76 c 77 b 78 a 79 b 80 a

81 d 82 a 83 b 84 a 85 b 86 a 87 c 88 a 89 b 90 a

91 b 92 c 93 a 94 b 95 d 96 a 97 b 98 d 99 b 100 c

101 b 102 c 103 a 104 b 105 d 106 a 107 b 108 d 109 b 110 c

111 b 112 d 113 c 114 d 115 b 116 d 117 d 118 a 119 c 120 b

121 d 122 b 123 c 124 a 125 d 126 b 127 b 128 a 129 c 130 b

131 d 132 c 133 a 134 c 135 b 136 c 137 c 138 b 139 d 140 b

141 c 142 b 143 b 144 a 145 c 146 a 147 b 148 c 149 d 150 a

151 c 152 b 153 a 154 d 155 b 156 c 157 a 158 d 159 a 160 b

161 b 162 c 163 d 164 c 165 b 166 a 167 b 168 a 169 c 170 d

171 a 172 b 173 c 174 d 175 b 176 a 177 b 178 d 179 a 180 c

181 b 182 d 183 b 184 d 185 b 186 b 187 a 188 b 189 a 190 d

191 c 192 d 193 c 194 a 195 b 196 c 197 b 198 a 199 b 200 d

201 b 202 c 203 a 204 d 205 a 206 b 207 c 208 d 209 b 210 a

211 b 212 d 213 c 214 b 215 a 216 c 217 b 218 d 219 a 220 d

221 b 222 c 223 c 224 d 225 b 226 a 227 b 228 d 229 c 230 b

231 c 232 d 233 b 234 b 235 a 236 b 237 a 238 d 239 a 240 c

241 b 242 c 243 b 244 d 245 a 246 c 247 a 248 b 249 c 250 b

251 b 252 a 253 d 254 b 255 c 256 b 257 d 258 a 259 c 260 b

261 c 262 b 263 a 264 d 265 b 266 d 267 c 268 a 269 b 270 c 271 c 272 b 273 d 274 b 275 a 276 b 277 c 278 a 279 b 280 d 281 d 282 d 283 a 284 c 285 b 286 a 287 c 288 b 289 a 290 d 291 a 292 c 293 d 294 a 295 b 296 b 297 b 298 b 299 c 300 a 301 c 302 c 303 a 304 b 305 b 306 d 307 d 308 b 309 a 310 d

MANTHAN Current Affairs Supplement – July, 2015...

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