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

News Roundup - 23 June 2016

• South Korea launches a campaign to tackle the problem of smartphone-related collisions between pedestrians and vehicles. It has more than doubled in five years to around 1,000 reported incidents in 2014. 300 warning signals in five locations across Seoul (Capital) have been installed.
• RBI to put in circulation Rs.10 coins bearing portrait of Swami Chinmayananda to commemorate his birth centenary. 
• Facebook tie-ups with nearly 140 media companies and celebrities to create videos to popularise Facebook Live among its 1.65 billion users. Buzzfeed, CNN, the New York Times, Vox Media, Mashable, Huffington Post, and celebrities like Deepak Chopra, actor-comedian Kevin Hart and top chef Gordon Ramsay, are few of them.
• Centre amnounced Rs.6,000 crore special package for textile and apparel sector to enable domestic firms globally. Expectations are an increase in exports by $30 billion and help attract investments worth Rs.74,000 crore in three years. India was leader in apparel exports between 1995 and 2000. Bangaldesh's apparel exports exceeded that of India in 2003, while Vietnam surpassed India in 2011.
• Sun Pharma Nitrofurantoin being recalled in US.
• Cabinet extends UDAY (Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana) deadline by a year to March 31, 2017. 
• Cabinet approved setting up of a Rs.10,000 crore fund to support start-ups in becoming full-fledged business entities.
• Tech Mahindra, country's fifth largest software exporter, has acquired UK based BIO agency which specialises in digital transformation across sectors such as retail, financial and travel, in an all-cash deal for an enterprise value of up to 45 million pounds.
• Appointed: Anupam Pahuja - MD & Country Manager - India Operations - PayPal
• Dead: Sanjay Valvani, Indian-origin hedge fund manager committed suicide. He faced securities fraud charges that he used confidential information to trade in securities of two pharma companies.
• Dead: Amjad Sabri - one of Pakistan's best known Sufi musicians was shot dead by unidentified assailants.
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Credits: Google.com, Hindu, Livemint.com

News Roundup - 22 June 2016

• LIC Chairman S K Roy resigns.
• Telecom Spectrum: Govt cleared India's largest spectrum auction valued at Rs.5.66 trillion (valued at Base Price). This auction will for the first time include 700 MHz frequency. On sale are 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, & 2500 MHz. 
• Housing for all by 2022: The Union Government's mission to provide housing started last year with special focus on affordable housing to economically weaker sections in urban areas. According to 2011 census, there are 24.67 crore households in India. Of these, 68% are rural and 32% urban households. 
• Ken Miyauchi, Head of SoftBank's Japanese telecommunications operations, named as President of SoftBank

Source: Google, Livemint.com

News Roundup - 21 June 2016

• Nikesh Arora resigns from SoftBank: Steps down from the position as representative, President and COO and assume advisory role effective July 1. He will also step down from the position of Chairman at Yahoo! Japan and Director at Sprint.
• ISRO to lauch 20 satellites in one day on 22nd June: The mission called 20-in-1 will see launch of 20 satellites from PSLV C-34 at Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.
• Vijay Mallaya quits as Chairman and Director from Bayer CropScience Ltd.
• Greece will receive Euro 7.5 billion in promised loans from International Creditors on Tuesday. Out of this, Euro 5.7 billion would go into debt service payments and remaining Euro 1.8 billion will pay Greek State arrears. 
• Sunway TaihuLight - the Chinese computer developed by National Research Centre of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology has claimed top spot on the list of world's most powerful computers.
• International Yoga Day celebrated today across country.

Source: The Hindu, Google, Livemint.com