News Roundup - 6 July 2016

• Prakash Javadekar elevated as Human Resource Department Minister.
• Juno enters Jupiter: After a five year long journey from Earth, NASA's solar-powered spacecraft Juno entered Jupiter's orbit. 
• Post introduction of 8% tax on food items with energy density of over 275Kcal/100g in Mexico, household purchases of nonessential energy-dense foods (salty snacks, chips, pastries and frozen desserts) has decreased. 
• Mobile mosque in Jakarta.
• Supreme Court sets a deadline of 10 days for Internet search companies Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to block sex selection ads. SC had asked it in Jan, 2015 and expressed dismay that nothing has been done till that.
• Hungary offers to incentivize Indian Companies that might leave UK in the wake of Brexit.
• Supreme Court holds Railways reliable for deaths on train roof.
• Maldives Foreign Minister, Dunya Maumoon, resigns over difference in opinion on implementation of death penalty. The new policy came when questions were being raised over delivery of justice in the country.
• Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail acquired Indian business of "Forever 21" from Diana Retail P Ltd for over 175 crore ($26million).
• Panel set up under Chief Economic Adviser Shankar Acharya to explore options for January to December Financial Year instead of current April to March.
• Lionel Messi and his father sentenced to 21 months jail for tax fraud.
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• URL = Uniform Resource Locators

Source: Google, The Hindu, Mint

News Roundup - 5 July 2016

• A sensitive electronic nose with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to detect pesticides and nerve gas even in very low concentrations has been built by researchers from University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium.
• Nigel Farage, leading Brexit campaigner, has stepped down as leader of UK Independent Party saying that his political ambition has achieved with "yes" vote on Brexit.
• Ling Jihua, an ex-aide of former Chinese president Hu Jintao, has been jailed for corruption, illegal procurement of state secrets and abuse of power.
• OPPO Electronics Ltd, Chinese mobile manufacturer, has become the first company to file an application for opening wholesale and single-brand retail stores.
• Telecom companies are likely to shell about Rs.1 trillion in upcoming spectrum auction - Crisil.
• Hero Motocorp signs 3 year wage agreement with Gurgaon workers.
• Narendra Modi reshuffles cabinet. The big change is Smriti Irani is no longer HRD minister.
• BookMyShow raises over 550 crores INR in its fourth round of funding. Investors are US based Stripes Group, Network 18, Accel Partners, and SAIF Partners.

Source: Google, Livemint.com, The Hindu

News Roundup - 01 July 2016

• Maruti Suzuki India Ltd's domestic sales in June fell 10.2% over last year, to 92,133 units.
• The Nikkei/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index rose to 51.7 in June 2016, highest in three months. This is the sixth month the index is above 50 - the mark which separates growth from contraction.
• Indian Air Force inducts indigeneous Light combat aircraft (LCA) "Tejas" into its 45 squadron "Flying Daggers". Tejas, the first advanced fly-by-wire, was developed by Aeronautics Development Agency and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
• Only transgenders would be considered third gender - Supreme Court. It was in reply to a clarification sought from the court on whether lesbians, gay and bisexuals qualify as transgenders.
• US ends ban on transgender troops. 
• Google announced the name of next version of its Android mobile operating system as Android Nougat.
•  Died: Alvin Toffler - Author of Future Shock and The Third Wave

Source: Google.com, Livemint.com, Hinduonnet.com

News Roundup - 30 June 2016

• Bus most preferred source of travel in India - NSSO.
• University Grants Commission (UGC) displays the list of 22 fake universities on its website.
• RBI eased the External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) norms to submit for approval plans to issue ECB only when they are above a threshold limit fixed from time to time.
• Union Cabinet approved Seventh pay commission allowing hike from 14% to 23.5% for 4.7 million employees and 5.3 million pensioners. This puts an additional burden of Rs.1.02 trillion on exchequer.
• AirAsia rebrands its aircraft with "Kabali" livery.
• India' fiscal deficit in April-May 2016 was Rs.2.28 trillion or 42.9% of budget estimates for 2016-17. Last year it was Rs.49,690 crore or 4.7% of budget estimate.
• Ahmedabad based Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd to buy Hyderabad based Glochem Industries Ltd for a undisclosed sum.
• Cisco has launched its start-up initiative "Launchpad". Initial focus will be on manufacturing, retail, transportation, education and healthcare sectors. Cisco has already invested $240 million among 25 start-ups in India.
• World Bank to lend India more than $1 billion for its solar energy program.

Source: Google.com, Livemint.com

News Roundup - 26 June 2016

• PM asks people to disclose the undisclosed assets by September 30 in his "Mann ki Baat" program. 

• India-Nepal to install Global Navigate Satellite System on approx. 8,000 pillars to effectively manage the 1,700 kms long porous border.

• China's steel major "Ansteel Engineering Technology Corporation Ltd." to invest Rs.3k crore plant in Andhra Pradesh as per reports.

Source: Google.com, Livemint.com

News Roundup - 25 June 2016

• Defence Ministry approved purchase of 145 Ultra Light Howitzers (worth approx. $750 million) from US and bulk production of 18 Dhanush artillery guns. Navy also got permission to build six new generation missile vesssels under "Buy Indian" category (Rs.13,600 crore)
• Wipro Ventures, the $100 million corporate ventures arm of Wipro Ltd, invested in Israel based venture capital firm TLV Partners. Infosys made similar investment in Pao Alto based Vertex Ventures last year to access start-ups focused on disruptive technologies. 
• China asks Baidu Inc and other search engines to report banned content apart from verifying advertisers' qualification from August 1.
• Sesa Iron Ore, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Inc, expects to make all 21 mines operational in Goa post monsoon.
• Government clarifies that foreign entities claiming to bring state of art and cutting edge technologies through FDI route will only get a waiver from local sourcing norms for three years and a relaxed sourcing regime for further five years.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches smart city projects in Pune. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Orissa got Rs.2,900 crore worth projects (sewage project - Rs.1,275 crore & water supply project - Rs.817 crore) under AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation). 
• Dutee Chand: First Indian female athlete to qualify for 100m dash in Olympics in 36 years. The Odisha athlete is going to participate in Rio Games at the 26th Kosanov Memorial Meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Source: Google.com, Livemint.com

News Roundup - 24 June 2016

• Britain votes for "Brexit" i.e. to leave Eurozone.
• Britain Prime Minister David Cameron to step down.
• Delhi Government wants referendum on full statehood for the national capital.
• China insists on India signing NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty) before entry into the exclusive NSG (National Security Group).
• London Court of Arbitration asks Tata Sons to pay $1.17 billion in damages to NTT DoCoMo for "breach of agreement".
• The first online pan-India tea auction "Sale 25" hit a technical snag. Auction was to be held on six centres - Kolkata, Guwahati, Siliguri, Kochi, Conoor, and Coimbatore.
• Vision 2018 - RBI's vision document to increase use of electronic payments by all sections of society. In April, share of electronic payments was 27%, up from 8% in March 2012. Unified Payment Interface and Payment System Advisory Council are also in the works.
• Centre pilots a program to reduce pollution with 10 CNG retro-fitted two-wheelers. The pilot starts in Delhi. Two-wheelers cause 32% of pollution from the trasportation sector. Delhi has around 5 lakh CNG-run private cars and 3-lakh CNG run commercial vehicle.
• Indian Internet and e-commerce received funding of $8.5 billion from private investors in 2015 as per Venture Intelligence. Amazon India, in the same period, reported operating cash flow of $11.9 billion and free cash flow of $7.3 billion.
• Kazuhiro Tsuga - President, Panasonic Corp - $66billion Japanese conglomerate.
• Anil Kumble, former Indian Captain, appointed India's head coach by BCCI for one year. BCCI = Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Source: Google.com, Livemint.com