GKCA Update

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Starred Articles

Mars Mission: India creates history as Mangalyaan successfully enters Mars
orbit in first attempt
India > Mars Mission
Creating history, ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) successfully entered the orbit of the red planet. India
joins the United States, Russia and Europe in successfully sending probes to orbit or land on Mars. Apart from
India, none managed to succeed on their first attempt.
The mission also makes India the first country in Asia to reach Mars, after an attempt by regional rival China
failed to leave Earth's orbit in 2011. ISRO's MOM is also the cheapest such mission till now. The Mars Orbiter
Mission was achieved on a budget of $74 million, nearly a tenth of the amount the U.S. space agency NASA
spent on sending the Maven spacecraft to Mars.

SBI signs $500 million line of credit with Korea Eximbank
Corporate > SBI
State Bank of India (SBI) has signed a line of credit (LoC) of $500 million with Export-Import Bank of Korea
(Korea Eximbank). This line will be in addition to (LoC) of $200 million signed between the two institutions on
January 16, 2014 to support Indian companies importing goods and services from Korea. The LoC can be
utilised to finance SBI's clients in India and its neighbouring countries having business relationships either by
way of equity participation or regular trade with Korean companies globally, as well as joint ventures or
subsidiaries of Korean companies.

Google inks pact with Andhra Pradesh for state's IT vision
Corporate > Google
Google India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Andhra Pradesh government to support AP
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's vision of transforming the state of Andhra Pradesh to 'Digital AP'. Under
the pact, Google India would work with the AP government to get women as well as small and medium
business online and help them gain from the internet economy. The highlights of the MoU include helping AP
government make their websites mobile-ready and accessible in the local language, promoting internet safety
amongst children and government officials, improving and getting more local language content online and
collaborating with the AP government to scale initiatives to promote digital literacy amongst women and
helping small medium businesses in AP to gain from the Internet economy and going digital.
The MoU was signed by Google India Vice-President and Managing Director Rajan Anandan and AP secretary
Sanjay Jaju in the presence of AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Others

US jury finds Arab Bank liable for backing terrorism
World > US
A federal jury found Jordan-based Arab Bank liable for knowingly supporting terrorism efforts connected to
two dozen attacks in the Middle East, the first time a bank has ever been held liable in a civil suit under a broad
antiterrorism statute. Arab Bank, a major Middle Eastern bank with $46 billion in assets, was accused of
knowingly supporting specific terrorist acts in and around Israel during the second Palestinian uprising of the
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early 2000s. The plaintiffs in this case, about 300 victims of 24 terrorist attacks, said the acts had been carried
out by Hamas, and accused Arab Bank of supporting the organization by handling transfers and payments for
Hamas members.
The case focused on transactions Arab Bank handled during the second Palestinian uprising. The plaintiffs
accused Arab Bank of handling transactions for a number of well-known terrorists, and helping to route
transactions for a charity called the Saudi Committee. That charity, the plaintiffs argued, sent payments to the
families of Hamas suicide bombers, pointing to a Saudi Committee spreadsheet that included the names of
relatives of some of those bombers.

India rolls Liars Dice for the Oscars
Awards > Oscars
Hindi road drama Liars Dice will be Indias nomination for the Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards,
better known as the Oscars, which will be given away in Los Angeles in 2015.
The movie, directed by Kerala State award-winner Geetu Mohandas, stars national award winners Geetanjali
Thapa and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Set along the Himachal-Tibet border, the movie deals with distress migration.

Microsoft to train 1 million women under tech initiative
Corporate > Microsoft
Microsoft, under its initiative to bring more women into the Indian IT industry, along with partners will train
and mentor 1 million women in the next 12 months. Microsofts 'Women in Tech' initiative aims to double the
number of women IT professionals in India from the present one million in the next few years. The initiative
will include girl school students, young women students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)
colleges, women IT professionals and entrepreneurs.
Women in Tech is designed to help aspiring IT professionals, by associating with them from the time they are
in high school till they take up a IT job or start their own IT venture. Under the initiative, Microsoft will engage
with 750,000 women in STEM courses in the next 12 months and will also train 250,000 women IT
professionals.
Besides, the programme will look towards building local communities for girls and women to meet, network
and learn from each other by sharing ideas and learnings across the board.

Amul becomes fastest growing dairy organisation in world
Corporate > Amul
The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets the popular Amul brand of milk
and dairy products, is the fastest growing dairy organisation in the world and has risen to the 15th rank among
top global dairy companies in 2014.
As per a statement released by the GCMMF, Amul has been ranked 15th among the top dairy organisations of
the world by International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN), a global dairy knowledge organisation.
Amul was on the 20th spot on the IFCN list in 2012.
Amul (GCMMF) has been ranked the 15th largest dairy organisation in the world, both in terms of total milk
procurement and in terms of turnover per litre of milk procurement.






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Tata Steel wins Asian CSR leadership award
Corporate > Tata Steel
Sukinda Chromite Mine of Tata Steel in Odisha has bagged the Asian Corporate Social Responsibility Leadership
Award for Community Development. The award was presented by World CSR Congress at Dubai. Voluntarily,
several officers of Sukinda Chromite Mine have been sponsoring orphan tribal girls of nearby schools of
Sukinda.
Due to Improvement Activities done by employees in the work place, they receive prize money. Even that
they donate to the needy school kids for buying books and school uniform.

O Panneerselvam sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
India > Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu Finance Minister O Panneerselvam was sworn in as the new chief minister of the state.
Panneerselvam, 63, the elected leader of the AIADMK legislature party, succeeds J Jayalalithaa, who was
sentenced to four years in prison for indulging in corruption.
Several AIADMK legislators were also sworn in as ministers. He became the chief minister of Tamil Nadu in
2001 in similar circumstances. He was also leader of the opposition when the AIADMK was voted out in 2006.

Syed Muazzem Ali is new Bangladesh envoy
India > Bangladesh Envoy
Retired diplomat and former Foreign Secretary, Syed Muazzem Ali, has been appointed the new Bangladesh
High Commissioner to India.
Mr. Ali will replace Tariq A. Karim, who has been in office for the past five years. He played a major role in
setting up the embassy of independent Bangladesh in the U.S. Mr. Ali served as the Bangladesh Ambassador to
Bhutan, Iran and France, and also worked at Bangladesh missions in Washington, Warsaw, New Delhi and
Jeddah in different capacities. He had retired as the Foreign Secretary in 2001.
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